The Chase
by Chellerbelle
Summary: In the Present, Gambit tries to auction off Emma Frost's diamond hand and finds himself caught between the X-men and Sinister's Marauders. 20 Years in the Future, Professor Xavier seeks to save his X-men from being murdered in the past by the Marauders, and prevent the Age of Apocalypse from ever happening.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Not associated with Marvel... feels redundant saying this on a fanfiction website...

This story assumes you've seen WatX in its entirety.

I'm taking bits and pieces from the Age of Apocalypse for that aspect of this story, but only the pieces which suit me. I couldn't be 100% faithful to that story even if I wanted to anyway, seeing as how the premise is an alternate timeline, not an alternate future.

The bar known as "The Dirty Glass" was named by **LizzieTurbo.**

Thanks to **scribblemyname **for your invaluable assistance with sorting out the timeline, and to **JayCee's RedGold** for proofreading. _The Chase_ would have been a lesser story without you.

Chapters will be posted once every two days.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**20 Years in the Future:**

Professor Xavier walked along the beaten path through the trees alongside Rogue. After twenty years, Rogue had aged remarkably well; for someone in her early forties, she looked no older than twenty-five. Still, while her body didn't reflect her age, the hardened look in her eye suggested she had lived far longer.

A few days after waking up into this new timeline, Rogue appeared at the otherwise deserted Mansion. She had been thrilled to see him awake and hugged him tightly. Sadly, the pleasantries didn't last long, and they quickly got down to business. Rogue filled him in on everything that had happened in the past twenty years, and the Professor contacted the past to pass on the winning gambles that Rogue had kept.

"I am a little uncomfortable with gambling in this manner," he had told her. "I know we're trying to save their lives, but it still feels... dishonest."

"Money is a tool, Professor," Rogue replied with a shrug. "If we had it at the time, we might have been able to save Emma. Instead, Gambit sold her hand to Sinister, and Sinister laid a trap for us when we tried to take it from his base."

Even now the Professor was still coming to terms with that. According to Rogue, the only survivors of that trap had been herself, Logan, Storm and Scott. Hank and Forge had also survived, but only because they had still been at the Mansion, trying to put Emma back together. Emma was _still_ at the Mansion, in pieces, with her left hand missing.

Scott had been captured later on and brainwashed by Sinister. Logan had been transformed into the current Horseman of Death when he killed the one before. Rogue didn't know what had happened to Warren, who had been the first Horseman of Death, only that he disappeared after killing Storm. Forge was part of the resistance, working with a theatre troupe which moved around regularly. Hank died a few years ago.

"We were so caught up in mourning our dead and trying to figure out our next move," Rogue told him, "we didn't realise that Worthington's Legacy Cure was a virus until it was too late. It had spread everywhere. Hank was working on a cure, but Sinister finished his first and offered it to all affected mutants on the proviso that they join and worship Apocalypse. Then Apocalypse sent out Pestilence with another virus: one that almost wiped out the human population."

Professor Xavier stopped at the top of the hill and then glanced back down towards the Xavier Estate. Rogue pulled on a branch off a nearby tree, revealing that the tree was fake, a computer console hidden behind it.

"That's right," the Professor spoke as Rogue pressed the appropriate buttons. "You said the resistance used the Mansion as an emergency refuge these days."

"It made sense," Rogue replied. "We knew you'd need Cerebro to communicate with the past. We could also keep yourself and Emma safe here. Forge built this hologram so that Apocalypse and his cronies would never know it was here."

A doorway suddenly appeared out of thin air, and Rogue and the Professor walked through. When the Professor looked back, the Mansion appeared to be in ruins. He caught his breath.

"That's one big hologram," he said.

Rogue smiled at the awe in his voice. "It sure is. Someone comes here regularly to check on supplies and power, and on you of course. Last few years it's been myself, just because me and my family live nearby."

"Your family?" the Professor asked, turning back to look at her.

"Yeah," she replied. "My husband and I are coming up to our fourteenth anniversary."

"Well, congratulations."

"Thank you," Rogue said, then gestured towards the dark city before them, full of skyscrapers and small pyramids. "We should get going."

"Of course," the Professor said, and continued following her along the trail, glancing at her gloves. "You have your powers under control then?"

"Huh? Oh... no," Rogue replied ruefully. "But I'm not completely deprived of human touch. You know that Z'noxx Chamber of yours?"

"Yes," the Professor said.

"Well, my husband built a modified version for our home," Rogue said, pushing past some more trees and finally arriving at a clearing in which a little red car was parked. "When I'm under it, I can touch."

"That's quite remarkable," he said. "The Z'noxx chamber was intended to be a psi-proof room. I had no idea it could be modified in such a way."

Rogue flashed the Professor a grin and opened up the car. "I'm sure glad it can, though."

The Professor chuckled softly. He got into the car and Rogue drove off. The road was somewhat to be desired, but they eventually reached a properly tarred road.

"Fourteen years," the Professor said thoughtfully. "Any children?"

The silence that followed was so long that at first the Professor wondered if he'd asked the wrong question. He was just a little bit tempted to read Rogue's mind and find out directly, but aside from ethical considerations, trying to make sense of Rogue's mind at the best of times was an effort.

"We have a son," Rogue said finally, sounding as though she was doing her best not to cry. "His name is Charlie."

"Charlie," the Professor breathed. He'd never dreamed anyone would name their child after him before.

"His powers manifested three months ago," Rogue went on, "and when the Marauders found out, they took him."

Professor Xavier looked at Rogue in horror, full of sympathy for the grieving mother.

"Sinister?" he asked finally.

"Indirectly," Rogue said, trying to sound matter-of-fact. "Sinister is the Head Steward in charge of this part of the world. Scott works for him as the leader of the Mutant Elite, whose primary task is to maintain order in the breeding pens."

"Breeding pens?"

"Sinister does love his little experiments," Rogue replied grimly. "The Horsemen are Apocalypse's elite. And the Marauders have significantly grown in number in the last twenty years. They serve as the 'police force' these days, although I personally think that's an insult to real police. Their recruitment methods are fairly direct: they see a prospective mutant they like, they take them. They prefer children, because they're easier to break and mould into ruthless, heartless killing machines."

"Rogue, I'm so sorry," the Professor said.

Rogue didn't reply, and they travelled for quite some time in silence. As they got closer to the city, the Professor started to notice statues of Apocalypse gleaming amongst the buildings, standing out in the shadows. Much of the darkness could be attributed to Apocalypse's citadel, floating above the centreof the city. The Professor eyed it apprehensively through the window.

"Apocalypse travels around a lot," Rogue said, noticing his attention. "He's in town for a special occasion."

"Oh?"

"I'll tell you more about it later," she said, then pointed to an imposing stone fortress. "That's the local Marauder stronghold."

"Where they're keeping Charlie?"

"As far as I know," Rogue said, her grip tightening on the steering wheel. "And as much as it galls me to admit it, this is one of the safer districts. The Marauders here are lead by one of Sinister's favourites: Gambit."

"So that's what happened to him," the Professor said.

"Gambit gets a lot of criticism for being 'too soft'," Rogue went on, her tone quickly becoming menacing. "Which is ironic, because he's also one of the toughest Marauders around and there's very few of them who could actually beat him in a fight. I can't wait to get my hands on him."

"I assume he was the one who ordered Charlie's...recruitment, then?"

"He didn't just order it," Rogue said darkly. "He took Charlie personally. Mark my words, Professor, by the time I'm through with that bastard, he's going to learn first hand why you never get between a mother and her child."

* * *

**Present time:**

Rogue looked at Emma where she lay on the table... in a manner of speaking. After Emma was shattered into pieces by the Phoenix force, the X-men had collected as many pieces of her diamond form as they could find. Their first thought was to give their fallen friend a proper burial; however, after they'd collected enough pieces, Jean discovered that she could still sense Emma within them.

"You're not seriously suggesting Emma could still be alive?" Logan had demanded of her.

"I'm suggesting more than that, Logan," Jean had replied. "If we can find all the pieces, we might even be able to save her."

For days the X-men worked non-stop trying to find all the pieces of Emma. Although most of the pieces had been in the immediate area of the explosion, there were many which had blown further afield, some even picked up by those who had come out of hiding after the Phoenix had dealt with the Sentinels. Jean just about lived in Cerebro, except when she was out gathering diamond dust that only she had any chance of picking up. Hank and Forge began the tedious task of matching the diamond shards together. The other X-men went wherever Jean sent them to pick up the larger pieces. Sometimes these places included homes and jewellers, and occasionally the sewers.

Time was of the essence; the longer it took them, the harder it would be to locate those final pieces. Still, five days into the search, Jean reached a point where she was no longer getting any readings from Cerebro. Hank and Forge were still trying to match pieces together, making it impossible to tell if they'd gotten them all.

In an effort to help Jean, Bobby and Kitty took it upon themselves to check online and news sources to see if they could locate anyone trying to buy or sell pieces of Emma. After all, Jean's grid search could be foiled by movement and by psi shielding.

Rogue watched as Hank meticulously scanned one of the diamond shards into the computer. She wanted to offer to help, but she didn't want to break his and Forge's concentration.

The medlab door opened and Logan came striding in. He frowned when all he saw of Emma Frost so far was a knee, most of one arm, a shoulder, and a bunch of pieces that fit together but in no discernible pattern. There were even more pieces all lined up on tables and benches with labels in front of them.

"What's taking so long?" he demanded.

Hank jumped, but his good reflexes kept him from dropping the shard of Emma on the floor (and shattering it into _more_ pieces). He cleared his throat as Forge looked up from the computer.

"Logan," Hank said patiently. "As I have explained previously, we first need to scan each piece into the computer and allow it to match up the variations in each surface. Since diamond can chip other diamond, we have to be extremely careful when putting pieces together, else we risk breaking Emma into even smaller pieces."

Logan was about to respond to this when the medlab door opened again and Bobby bounded into the room.

"Logan! There you are!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"People are working," Logan said, causing Hank to sigh and Forge to shake his head in disgust.

"Oops. Right," Bobby said, his voice dropping down significantly in volume. "We found another piece of Emma! We think... It's a solid diamond in the shape of a hand. From all the videos and measurements it sure looks like it could be Emma's. It's going on auction in a couple of days."

In a flash, Logan was back through the door and into the hallway. Bobby had barely time to react before running after him. Rogue glanced at Hank and Forge, decided she would only be a hindrance rather than a help, and followed Logan and Bobby at a more sedate pace.

When Rogue arrived at the library she saw Kitty sitting at one of the computers with Bobby beside her at his own, Logan leaning over him. Rogue joined them and peered over Bobby's shoulder. She gave a low whistle at the minimum bid for Emma's hand.

"Can't be coincidence," she said as Bobby played a video showing off the diamond.

"That's what we thought," said Kitty. "They're having a viewing in a couple of days and the auction will be the same afternoon."

"I guess we'll be going to that viewing," said Logan.

"We need to register," Kitty pointed out.

"Fine."

"You need ID, so I need to know who's going."

Logan made an irritated sound. "I am. Jean too, she should verify that we're not wasting our time."

* * *

"So, why is it," Scott asked as Logan and Jean exited the X-van a few days later, "that you get to go to the auction with my girlfriend?"

"Because I damn well want to," Logan replied and shut the door in Scott's face.

Scott huffed as Logan and Jean headed inside. Glancing over at Rogue, Kitty, and Bobby, he was not at all impressed with being made the backup.

The viewing area was reasonably crowded, but going from Jean's telepathic scan of the room, most were only there to look. Logan was a little frustrated by the time they finally got through the throng, but as soon as he laid eyes on that diamond hand he knew it was Emma's, even without Jean's verification. It was a miracle it even stayed intact.

"That's definitely Emma's," said Jean. "It must have been psi shielded until today."

Jean was given no further chances for self-recriminations for she was approached by one of the staff who inquired if she was bidding or viewing. While Jean got the run down on how the auction worked, Logan eyed off the security guards hovering over the hand and scanned the room. He caught the scent of someone familiar and looked around for the source.

"Thanks very much," Jean said, finishing up the conversation, noticing the Wolverine's narrowed eyes. "Logan?"

His only reply was to take off towards the source of the familiar scent. Jean followed quickly, stopping when they came up behind a man in a trench coat.

"Gambit," Logan said, his voice almost a growl.

The man, Gambit, turned and offered Logan a smirk when he saw him.

"Why, Wolverine, I didn't expect to see you at my little auction," he said, then smiled at Jean, taking her hand with an incline of his head. "And pray tell, who is this stunning beauty you're with?"

Jean found herself grinning like an idiot as Gambit's lips softly brushed her knuckles.

"Jean," she answered.

"Your auction?" Logan demanded.

"Oui," Gambit said, never taking his eyes off Jean as he let go of her hand. "A lucky find. Jean Grey, right? One of the original X-men, yeah?"

"That's right," Jean confirmed. "Are you expecting to sell it for very much?"

"But of course," Gambit grinned. "A solid diamond, sculpted perfectly into a human hand. A female hand, if I'm not mistaken. It is an exquisite work of art."

"Which you stole," said Logan.

Gambit pressed his hand over his heart. "Stole? Moi? How could you say such a thing?"

"Two words:" Logan replied, "Thieves Guild."

"Don't know what you're talking about," Gambit smiled innocently, then noticed someone over Logan's shoulder. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have potential buyers to greet."

Gambit sauntered past and they turned around to see him greet his 'potential buyers'. One was a blonde woman wearing a tight black shirt with a plunging neckline so low they could see her belly button. She had on a matching pair of black pants. With her was another familiar scent: the purple-haired Arclight, one of Mr Sinister's Marauders. Logan glowered at Gambit while he got chummy with the new arrivals, or more to the point, with the woman.

"Great, that's all we need," Jean said tersely. "We can't let Sinister get his hands on Emma."

"Agreed," Logan clenched his fists. "When does this thing start?"

"We still have another three hours."

Logan growled.

* * *

By the time the auction started, Jean was wishing she'd come in with Scott. Logan just didn't seem to handle waiting very well. Still, the long wait hadn't been completely fruitless; they had identified Arclight's companion as a new Marauder, Lady Mastermind. Jean suspected Lady Mastermind had some psionic abilities, but couldn't identify exactly what. She also reported that Gambit had some sort of static around his mind which prevented her from being able to read him easily. Logan was not at all happy with that news.

The auctioneer went over the rules, terms, and conditions of the auction with the audience and then finally asked for an opening bid. Jean looked around; there was nothing but awkward silence in the room. Logan frowned and Jean lifted up her paddle. The Auctioneer called out her number and then started pressing the crowd for another bid. There were no more bids and after a lengthy, fidgety silence, the auction closed. The auctioneer announced that the reserve had not been met and then thanked everyone for coming.

"We won right?" Logan asked.

"No, Logan," said Jean. "The reserve hadn't been met."

Logan looked at her.

"Gambit wants more money," Jean explained. "He won't sell it for what we offered."

A nasty smile filled Logan's face. "Oh, I can make him a new offer."

"Yes, I know," Jean said. "At this point it's likely that people will start making Gambit private offers for the hand."

"Why not just make the offer during the auction?" Logan asked.

Jean shrugged. "Come on. We should find out what he wants."

When Logan and Jean caught up with Gambit he was already conversing with Lady Mastermind and Arclight. Or, more accurately, he and Lady Mastermind were flirting with each other while Arclight looked bored.

"Ahh, Jean, Wolverine," Gambit said upon noticing their approach. "I have to admit I was rather surprised you bid at all. I didn't think diamond hands were of any interest to the X-men."

Jean was distracted from replying when she noticed psychic activity on Lady Mastermind's part. Jean quickly unravelled the illusion she had attempted to create over them. Lady Mastermind glared at Jean when she realised what had happened, her arm firmly wrapping itself around Gambit.

"You'd be surprised what we're interested in," said Logan, oblivious to what just happened. "What do you want?"

Logan really hated the idea of negotiating with Gambit. The only thing stopping him from just taking Emma's hand was the simple fact that it was no longer on display and he had no idea where it was being kept.

"What he wants," said Lady Mastermind before Gambit could get a word in, "is to do the smart thing and sell it to Mr Sinister."

"Only if he's the highest bidder, chère," Gambit told her, then looked at Jean. "What about you, ma chérie? Care to up your bid?"

Logan growled.

"Just how much are you after?" Jean asked, wishing she could read Gambit's mind.

"Whatever it is," Lady Mastermind ran her finger up Gambit's chest, "we'll double it."

Gambit chuckled and named his price. Jean and Logan both internally winced; neither of them liked the idea of spending that much of the Professor's money, especially considering more went out than came in these days. Nevertheless Jean upped her bid. Lady Mastermind increased hers without a second thought and took it upon herself to run her finger over Gambit's lips and draw him in for a kiss.

"Excuse me," Jean said, glaring at Lady Mastermind, all the while getting feedback from Arclight confirming that Gambit had a weakness for women. "We are attempting to negotiate here."

Gambit put his own finger on Lady Mastermind's lips.

"She is right, chère," he said. "We should save this for later, no?"

"Whatever happened to rule number three?" Logan asked dryly.

"What is this 'rule number three' of which you speak, Wolverine?" Gambit asked.

Logan growled and Gambit smirked. He knew that Logan was referring to the Thieves Guild law about not getting personally involved with clients. However, this was not an occasion he was inclined to acknowledge being a thief, even though all four people he was talking to knew he was.

"Ahem," said one of the staff, joining them and looking at Gambit. "If I may interrupt?"

"Of course," said Gambit. "If you'll excuse me."

Logan, Jean, Lady Mastermind and Arclight all glared at each other as Gambit departed to discuss offers from the various collectors that were also there.

"Back off," said Lady Mastermind, narrowing her eyes at Jean.

"Just what does Sinister want with that hand?" Logan demanded.

"That's none of your business Wolverine," Arclight replied. "Just know that Sinister will have it, by any means necessary."

"Would you stop that?" Jean said, glowering at Lady Mastermind after unravelling another of her attempted illusions.

"I told you to back off," Lady Mastermind said, jabbing her finger into Jean's chest.

There was a cough and the four turned to see another of the staff there. He coughed again, uncomfortably, and held out a couple of cards, one to each pair.

"The owner said to pass on his details," he said. "He would prefer it if you contacted him privately with your respective offers."

"Thank you," Jean said, accepting the card graciously.

The attendant nodded and took his leave.

* * *

"We spent all that time waiting," Scott said on the drive back home, "and you didn't even get Emma's hand?"

"Wherever the hand ended up after the auction, it was psi shielded," Jean replied tersely.

"Diamond doesn't leave much of a scent," Logan added irritably from the driver's seat.

"What I don't get... is why were the Marauders even trying to negotiate?" Bobby said. "I mean, they're the Marauders! Shouldn't they be taking?"

"I don't know," said Jean, "but Sinister wants it. He sent his new little illusionist to flirt with Gambit and to deter the other bidders. I did what I could to stop her from manipulating them, but ultimately, if she didn't get them there, she'll track them down later and take care of it."

"Gambit's more valuable to Sinister alive and co-operative," Rogue almost added as an afterthought.

"How do you figure that?" asked Scott.

"He robbed us _and_ managed to sabotage Genosha," she pointed out. "Gambit's obviously a very good thief. I'm guessing Sinister wants to keep his skills available to him."

"Makes as much sense as anything else," Logan said.

"So, how much does he want for it?" asked Kitty.

Jean told them, a mix of horrified and shocked reactions followed.

"We have that much... right?" asked Bobby.

"Right now the X-men are living off the interest generated from Professor Xavier's investments," Scott said as he ran the numbers in his head. "We'd need to tap into the capital in order to pay for it, which will ultimately mean that we'll have less interest available to us in the future."

"So, why aren't we tracking Gambit down and taking it from him?" asked Kitty. "It's not his anyway."

"Tried that," said Logan. "Damn Cajun's slippery as an eel. We didn't see him leave and I lost his scent."

"So what do we do then?" asked Bobby.

"He gave us his number so we could put in a silent bid," said Jean. "I guess we string him along until we find out where he's keeping it."

"All I need to do is get him alone," said Logan direly. "I'll find out where he's keeping it."

* * *

There was a bamf as they got out of the X-van and everyone looked over as Kurt teleported into the garage.

"We were beginning to wonder if you'd ever get back!" he proclaimed, bit more over-excited than he usually was. "We've heard from the Professor."

"Damn, missed him," said Logan. "What's the news?"

"Actually, it's a little strange," Kurt said. "First, he gave us a chemical formula, saying it was the cure for the Legacy Virus."

"What's the Legacy Virus?" Jean asked.

Kurt shrugged. "He also gave us a list of lottery numbers, horse race winners and the name of the team that's going to win the Superbowl this season."

"The Professor gave you that?" Kitty's jaw gaped.

"His timing's impeccable," Rogue said dryly.

"How so?" asked Kurt.

"Come on," said Logan. "We'll fill everyone in at once."

As it happened, the entire core of the X-Men were able to gather together over dinner. Hank and Forge were glad for the break from their task.

"Well, then," said Storm after hearing everything they had to say. "Plainly, the Professor intends us to raise the necessary money by, ahem, gambling. And since, according to Jean, this Gambit has a weakness for women, then perhaps as both a woman and a former thief, I should conduct the negotiation."

"I should come with you," said Jean as she put down her glass. "You know, so that Lady Mastermind doesn't attempt to manipulate you in case they come after us."

"Wait a second—" Logan began.

"In the event of a physical meeting, that would be wise," said Storm. "Myself conducting the business side will also leave you free to concentrate on the psychic side and everyone else can be free to scout or stand on guard or as backup in the event of other Marauders."

"Yeah, I doubt they're just going to stand by and let us be the highest bidder," Rogue said dryly. "Plus we all know how much Sinister would love to get his hands on Jean again."

"Sinister already got what he wanted from us," said Scott, stabbing at his chicken irritably. "He ordered Archangel to kill us because Jean might be able to stop... whatever it is he's planning."

"Either way, he's still out to get Jean."

"And he's not going to get her," Logan said firmly in a voice that was almost a growl.

"Hmm," Kurt said thoughtfully. "Then perhaps we should think about, ahem, 'investing' in some of these things the Professor mentioned."

"Yeah, do that," said Logan. "I'd prefer it if we didn't pay him anything though."

"You'd think the Professor would have given us some good businesses to invest in," said Bobby. "Shares and stuff."

"Isn't that kind of thing more long term though?" asked Kitty, scooping up some vegetables on her fork. "We _are_ trying to prevent the current future from happening, you know."

"Yeah, true," Bobby said. "I never thought I'd say the lottery was a more worthwhile investment than a company though."

"Alright," said Storm. "I will give Gambit a call after dinner."

"What if you call, give your bid, and he never calls back?" asked Rogue.

"A good point, Rogue, but I don't think that will be a problem," said Storm. "Aside from the fact that Gambit will likely want the best price he can get, and I doubt he would be beneath playing us against the Marauders, the Professor provided us with financial assistance."

* * *

**1 Year in the Future:**

Rogue walked into the bar known as The Dirty Glass, taking a moment at the door to look around. It was crowded and stuffy, but at least there were no signs of any Marauders. She headed towards the bar and bought a beer. It was only when she opened said beer that her eyes fell on the one Marauder she had missed: Gambit.

Rogue pursed her lips and pretended not to notice Sinister's favourite drinking something out of a glass. She did, however, discreetly move away. Hopefully with such a large crowd that time of day, Gambit wouldn't notice her presence.

After what felt like forever, Boom Boom swaggered in, the blonde dancing through the crowd before locating Rogue.

"You've got it?' Boom Boom asked, still dancing.

Rogue only nodded and pulled out a small bundle from her pocket. Boom Boom took the packet and replaced it with a folded sheet of paper.

"Good luck, hon," Boom Boom said. "You're gonna need it."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**20 Years in the Future:**

Although Rogue's first inclination had been to go straight home, she instead decided to detour via the factory.

"They say that the definition of insanity—or one of them, anyway—is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results," Rogue explained to the Professor. "Any time someone kills a Horseman, their killer becomes the new Horseman, even if the killer is one of us rebels."

"Like Logan?" the Professor asked.

"Yep. Lorna Dane too; she's the reigning Horseman of Pestilence."

"I see."

"Suffice to say, there's sufficient brainwashing going on that having rebels as Horsemen isn't exactly an advantage," Rogue went on. "The Marauders have also been known to slaughter innocent people when the resistance pulls off a successful attack and they can't catch us. It makes things awkward, not just because we don't want innocent blood on our hands, but also because civilians have been known to make things... difficult for us. Nowadays there's only active resistance in the worst districts; the ones where Marauder injustice is intolerable."

The Professor nodded thoughtfully.

"The rest of us have moved on to more passive resistance," Rogue said sadly. "Excepting Forge, of course. He and his theatre troupe are capable of more active resistance because they move around a lot and they're in a better position to make their activities look like accidents. They have to be discreet, of course, or they risk alerting people to a pattern."

"Naturally."

"The best way to take out the Horsemen is to take out Apocalypse," Rogue continued as they turned a corner. "He can't replace them if he's dead. Unfortunately, Apocalypse spends all his time on his little citadel and the only way to get to him is through his Horsemen."

"Ahh," the Professor nodded sympathetically. "A catch-22."

"Exactly," Rogue went on smugly: "Fortunately, we've figured out a way around that little problem. You are, I assume, familiar with the story of the Trojan Horse."

"Yes indeed," Professor Xavier replied. "The Greeks constructed a wooden horse, hid warriors inside it, and then appeared to leave so the Trojans would be fooled into taking the horse inside the city gates. The warriors came out at night and were joined by the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back in the meantime. They destroyed the city of Troy, ending a ten-year war."

"Well, if Apocalypse wishes to be worshipped as a god, we're going to have to appeal to his vanity," Rogue said. "It's taken us years, and a hell of a lot of Apocalypse statues, but we've finally gotten the chance to give a very special statue to Apocalypse."

"One that you'll be presenting to him personally, I presume," the Professor said, noting another Apocalypse statue as they drove. "And that's why his citadel is in the area?"

"Yep," Rogue turned into the parking lot of the factory. "And this is it: the factory where we build the statues."

She parked and they got out of the car. The Professor followed Rogue to the door and she let them in. He caught his breath as he took in the sheer enormity of the statue before him, at least five stories tall and gleaming brightly.

"Sugah, there's someone here to see you," Rogue called.

A smile came to Professor Xavier's face as he saw a familiar figure float down to ground level. Magneto had definitely aged in the last twenty years, and indeed, the Professor was just a little surprised to see him, especially given how so many others had died.

"Charles?" Magneto queried, staring at the Professor in surprise.

"See?" Rogue said with a smirk. "I knew he'd be waking soon."

"It is good to see you, old friend," Professor Xavier said.

He held out his arms and Magneto embraced him gladly.

"It is good to see you too," Magneto replied. "It has been far too long."

"Rogue has been telling me of all that's happened," the Professor said as they pulled away from their hug. "I'm sorry to hear about Lorna."

"As am I, Charles."

"What of Wanda and Pietro?"

"I'm afraid Wanda died a few years ago," Magneto replied grimly. "Pietro still works with us."

"He's going to be one of our warriors inside the Trojan Horse," Rogue said with a slight smirk.

The Professor nodded and then a glint on Magneto's finger caught his eye. He looked at the wedding band in surprise.

"You've married too?" he inquired.

Magneto glanced at Rogue. Rogue shrugged.

"Yeah," Rogue said. "This is my husband, Professor."

* * *

**Present Time:**

Gambit did not like this, not one bit. He didn't know why both Sinister and the X-Men had an interest in the diamond hand. It must be far more valuable than he expected, especially given that other potential buyers had been scared off, probably by the Marauders, although he wouldn't put it past the X-Men to try scare tactics.

So now he found himself caught between two strong players. A part of him just wanted to take money from both sides, leaving the hand where they could both fight over it. His rational side concluded that the losers at the very least wouldn't be content to let him get away with their money and he didn't want to be forever running away from either group.

His best bet would be to just pick one side and sell it quickly. Unfortunately, he was having a hard time trying to decide between them. On the one hand, he was currently in Sinister's good books and, given what the man liked to do to mutants, Gambit wanted to stay that way. On the other, Gambit wasn't too keen on providing Sinister with anything that might further his experiments, which had been particularly disturbing lately.

Thus it was that Gambit's indecision led him to rent out a conference room and invite both parties. There was no way he was going to put himself in a room with just one side and not the other; his sense of self-preservation was far too keen for that. He also made sure of an escape route.

The Marauders were early; Arclight sat across from him at the table, while Lady Mastermind and Vertigo on either side. Gambit was not at all impressed with their blatant attempt to seduce him into selling to them. There were only two female Marauders on the whole team and both of them were part of the negotiating team. Gambit figured his reputation as a 'ladies man' had caught up with him and was a little insulted that they thought they could manipulate him so easily.

Understandably, when the X-Men arrived he wasn't thinking charitable thoughts when he realised they'd sent two women and a man as well: Logan, Storm and Jean. Although attractive, Gambit was relieved when neither woman attempted to flirt with him. Logan leaned against the wall opposite with his arms folded, while Storm and Jean sat down at the table.

"What are they doing here?" Vertigo demanded, glowering at the X-Men.

Logan glared right back at her.

"You're all here," Gambit said, leaning back in his chair and attempting to ignore Vertigo and Lady Mastermind's hands on his arms and chest, "because both parties have offered me the same amount of money."

It wasn't entirely true, but he was pretty sure neither side would have a problem matching the higher bid. Gambit held up his hand before any increases could be delivered.

"I assure you I am...content with the amount of money we're talking here," Gambit said firmly. "I have no interest in listening to either side trying to up the other in dollar value, with no guarantee that you actually have the money. Therefore, I will sell the diamond to the side that makes me the most interesting offer in addition to the money."

"How about I don't turn you into shish-kebob?" Logan said darkly. "That interesting enough for you?"

"Ahh, Wolverine," Gambit said, smirking at him. "You still owe me for the last job I did for you."

"I don't owe you a damn thing," Logan replied.

"Au contraire, mon ami. You got the collar back, did you not?" Gambit said, while Lady Mastermind entertained herself with his neck.

"You left me with the prowler," Logan said.

"You're alive, aren't you?"

"Ahem," said Storm, cutting in. "Just what would you find 'interesting', Gambit?"

Gambit gave a shrug. "Goods or services unique to your organisations might be a place to start," he suggested.

"You can have one of my illusions," said Lady Mastermind. "Anyone you chose... even yourself."

"Intriguing," Gambit replied, running his finger down her nose. "I prefer to remain in my right mind, though."

"I'm sure you can have the use of the Marauders for a job," Arclight said.

"If I ever need anyone butchered, I'll let you know," Gambit said blandly.

"For anything more," Acrlight went on dryly, "we'll have to confer with Sinister."

"You do that," Gambit said, then glanced at the X-Men. "Got anything for me?"

There was a long silence, and then Storm spoke up:

"Are you a gambling man, Gambit?" she asked.

The question was met with snickers from the Marauders. Storm ignored them, keeping her eyes on Gambit, who was smirking back at her.

"Oui," he replied. "You might say that."

"Do you ever put money down on the horses?" she asked, ignored the startled look that Logan shot her.

"Once or twice," Gambit replied with a shrug. "Poker's my game. Why? Got some hot tips for me?"

"Better, I can give you a guarantee," Storm said, then turned her head towards Jean. "Jean? Could you contact Nightcrawler please?"

Jean nodded, catching Storm's unvoiced instructions to bring a short list of anything due in the next few days.

"Nightcrawler's still alive and crawling, hein?" Gambit said, leaning on the table towards Storm. "Good for him. I hope he had a better time leaving Genosha than I did."

"No hard feelings, eh, bub?" Logan said, glowering at him.

"It's just business, mon ami," Gambit replied with a shrug.

"Rogue has the list, and she's just a couple of blocks away. She'll be here shortly," Jean reported, and then added telepathically towards Storm and Logan: _"She's been checking up on the information, placing bets, and she bought this week's lottery ticket."_

Gambit leaned back in his chair irritably. Great. Another woman. Not that he minded the company of the female sex—not at all—but the blatant attempts at manipulation were getting on his nerves. Gambit narrowed his eyes as he recalled what his research on the X-Men had told him of this Rogue. If they thought for one minute that he was going to let her poisonous skin anywhere near him, they had another think coming.

* * *

Rogue opened up the double doors and entered the conference room. The first thing she saw was Gambit being fawned over by the two Marauder women. She gritted her teeth and didn't know what she hated the most about the sight: that the women were degrading themselves like that over a diamond hand or that Gambit was taking advantage of them. She ignored everyone looking at her and took out a slip of paper from her pocket.

"Here's the list you wanted, Storm," Rogue handed over the short list she had hastily scribbled on the way.

"Thank you, Rogue," Storm replied, accepting the small piece of paper.

Storm looked it over then handed it to Gambit.

"Think of it as a show of good faith," Storm said seriously. "These races will be on in the next few days; bet on them or not as you wish. We will supply you with further race outcomes if you agree to sell the diamond hand to us."

Gambit glanced only briefly at the paper before he folded it and put it inside one of his main pockets.

"I have to admit," he said, "I am intrigued to see if this actually pays out. I didn't realise the X-Men had a precog."

"I never said how we acquired the information," Storm responded firmly. "Nor will the source be a bargaining chip."

Gambit smirked at her.

"I'd be surprised if it was," he said and then looked around the room. "And unless anyone had anything else to add, I'd say that this meeting is adjourned, no? We'll meet again after I've had a chance to check these out, and that'll give Sinister some time to think of something to impress me with."

Gambit stood and patted Lady Mastermind's and Vertigo's backs. "After you, ladies."

He watched as the Marauders and the X-Men piled out. He ignored the dark stare that Logan gave him as he wandered casually away from the table. As soon as Rogue—the last one—was out the door, however, he turned and ran for the second door in the room: the fire escape. He'd already disabled the fire alarm in advance, so it was only a matter of bolting down the stairs as fast as he could. He paid no attention to the way his footsteps echoed on the concrete.

The ground floor door led into a back street. He licked his finger and held it up to determine which way the wind was coming from, then destroyed a nearby dumpster with a couple of cards. As the garbage blew everywhere, Gambit ran downwind until he hit the main street where he moved at a more sedate pace and, at what he deemed was his best opportunity, veered off to the bar where he had parked his motorcycle. After that meeting all Gambit wanted to do was relax. He had thought about picking up a one-night-stand, but Lady Mastermind and Vertigo had successfully put him off that idea.

Gambit ordered his beer and found a table in the corner to sit at. He was both frustrated and relieved that the decision had been put off. Relieved because he honestly didn't know which would be the better choice, and frustrated because the diamond hand was starting to look like it was more trouble than it was worth.

He was partway through his beer when a decidedly female figure approached the table with two beers in hand. He slowly looked up, recognising the tight-fitting green and black clothes.

"How the hell did you find me?" Gambit asked Rogue.

"That would be telling," Rogue replied, sitting down across from him, and sliding the second beer over.

"You're wasting your time," Gambit said, pushing the beer back towards her. "You don't get to bully or seduce me into making a decision in your favour."

"Don't flatter yourself," Rogue said, opening up her beer and giving him a scornful look. "I'm only here 'cause Wolverine doesn't trust you not to vanish into thin air and take the hand with you. He doesn't trust Sinister either."

"And I don't trust any of you," Gambit replied. "Especially not women with poisonous skin who buy me beer."

"Oh don't you worry, Swamp Rat," Rogue said, sliding the second beer back over to him, "I wouldn't try to seduce you, even if my powers were under control."

"Sure, you say that _now_..." Gambit said, ignoring the second beer and picking his own up.

"I have zero interest in womanising thieves who sell out their own kind and try to hurt my family," Rogue shot back. "I'm also suspicious of anyone Sinister decides to play nice with. You're just going to have to deal with me or one of the other X-Men hanging around you for the next few days."

Gambit and Rogue glared at each other across the table.

"You're not doing anything to help your case," Gambit said.

"Please, we're competing against a geneticist who likes to refer to DNA samples as 'genetic material'—and takes it by force in his obsession to create the ultimate mutant—and his gang of hand-picked killing machines who also apparently like to whore themselves out for kicks. I hardly think we're the ones you have to be concerned about following you around," Rogue rolled her eyes, then added snidely, "Though I suppose you probably would prefer the company of Lady Mastermind over myself."

Oddly enough, Gambit realised that wasn't actually true. Not that there was really much difference between them in his mind, as he knew neither of them very well. Still, he wasn't going to tell Rogue that.

"What can I say, chère? When I take a femme to my bed, I prefer it if I actually wake up in the morning," he replied, leaning back in his chair.

"Really? You stay that long, huh?" Rogue asked with disdain. "I would've thought you the type to just leave during the night."

"Interesting," Gambit said smugly, "the virgin has been thinking about what type I am."

"Interesting," Rogue retorted with not so much as a bat of her eye, "the womaniser has been thinking about my virginity."

"If you don't mind, chère, I was planning on picking up a one night stand for tonight," he lied. "You're crimping my style."

Rogue dramatically pressed the back of her hand to her forehead.

"Oh woe is Gambit, he might not get laid tonight," she said, dropped her hand and went on dryly: "My heart bleeds for you."

Gambit took a swig of his beer and looked at her steadily. If the circumstances had been different, he might have actually been enjoying her company. She had a certain spark he always found attractive in a woman.

Regardless, Gambit resented feeling penned in and started working on a plan to extract himself. It was likely that Rogue had alerted her friends as to his whereabouts, and if they were smart, they were probably watching all possible exits. He had three choices: leave and hope he could lose them, lose Rogue in the bar and stay hidden until they thought he'd left and they'd missed him, or let the X-Men babysit him. Gambit was not a fan of the third option.

Rogue spent more time just looking at Gambit than drinking, grateful that he'd stopped talking. She had the good fortune to look back into the conference room just in time to see him leave through the fire escape. She had acted immediately, running after him. Rogue got outside just as the dumpster exploded and nearly missed Gambit altogether.

Keeping up with Gambit on the main street had been terrible. The man certainly knew how to weave his way through a crowd. The only way she'd been able to keep track of him was by absorbing the people around her; a brief touch here and there was all she needed to know which way he'd gone. Once she'd gotten to the bar, she'd called the others and let them know where they were. The X-men had been too distracted by the Marauders to even notice that the two were missing, and Rogue figured Gambit had counted on that. After muttering something about 'slippery Cajuns', Logan told Rogue to stay with him.

Gambit finished off his beer and as he sat the empty bottle on the table, he eyed Rogue's drink. He wondered if it might be possible to get a few more in her. He was reluctant to display his ignorance about the diamond hand but at the same time he knew there was way more to it than met the eye. Why else would the X-Men and Sinister both want something so frivolous? A slight smile crossed his face; a few more drinks would make it easier for him to lose her later too.

Gambit reached out and took the second beer she'd bought him.

"Merci," he said.

Rogue glanced at him, as if a little suspicious of his acceptance. She relaxed after figuring he probably wasn't beneath accepting a free beer from anyone.

"You're welcome," she replied.

Gambit leaned back in his chair with his beer and tried to think of a way to get her talking. He figured the best place to start was to get her off her guard by making small talk. Gambit ran over in his mind what little he knew about her.

"Have fun shopping today?" he asked.

Rogue frowned at him. "Shopping?"

"Jean said that you were only a couple of blocks away when she 'called' you. I assumed that meant you had been shopping," he said, then smiled at her slyly as another thought occurred to him. "Although she also said you had the list, so... just what kind of shopping were you doing, chère?"

Rogue cleared her throat uncomfortably, well aware of the soon-to-be winning lottery ticket in her inside jacket pocket. Gambit grinned at her obvious discomfort.

"You were betting on the horses too," he chuckled lightly. "Well, I may have done you a disservice; it seems you did your side a favour after all."

Rogue quirked an eyebrow at him. "Oh?"

"Putting your money where your mouth is," Gambit replied. "You must be confident if you're betting on them too."

A part of him wanted to ask how they were rigging the races, but he decided not to pursue it. Rogue had noticeably relaxed, and he planned on keeping her that way. He lifted his beer.

"Next round's on me," he said.

* * *

**1 Year in the Future:**

Rogue walked into The Dirty Glass, taking a moment at the door to look around. It was crowded and stuffy but at least there were no signs of any Marauders. She headed towards the bar and bought a beer. It was only when she opened said beer that her eyes fell on the one Marauder she had missed: Gambit.

Rogue pursed her lips and pretended not to notice Sinister's favourite drinking something out of a glass. Unfortunately, he did notice her, and took it upon himself to join her.

"Long time, no see," he said.

"Not long enough," Rogue replied, refusing to look at him.

"Aww," Gambit said, running his free fingers down her arm, "don't be like that, chère—"

"Don't 'chère' me," Rogue said, glaring at him. "And remove your slimy little blood-stained hand before I remove it for you."

Gambit lifted his hand and inspected it. "Doesn't look slimy or blood-stained to me."

Rogue put her hand on his chest and pushed him aside as she walked away. He didn't follow her, but Rogue was sure she could feel his eyes on her. When Boom Boom arrived, rather than meet her in public, she instead caught her eye and then headed into the bathroom. A few minutes later, Boom Boom joined her.

"Problem?" Boom Boom asked.

"Gambit's here," Rogue said.

"We still making the switch?"

"Yeah," Rogue said, holding out the small bundle which held the payment. "It'll be safer with me."

Boom Boom nodded and exchanged the packet for a folded sheet of paper. Rogue folded it once more and then hid it inside her bra. Boom Boom grinned.

"I'll leave first," Rogue said.

"Good luck, hon," Boom Boom said with a nod. "You're gonna need it."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**20 Years in the Future:**

Professor Xavier found it hard to sleep that night, and in his restlessness, he did another tour of Rogue and Magneto's home. The fact that the pair was married was still quite a shock to him; in some ways that was harder to swallow than Apocalypse's rule. He had never considered them as a romantic couple, let alone one with a child.

Their home was a luxurious penthouse suite, complete with personal gym. Their living room showed signs of a recent fight, with a few blast marks on the walls and the distinctive speckling of recently patched up of holes. A couple of windows were boarded up. There was one room which was locked and the Professor judged it was probably Charlie's room. The Professor doubted Rogue and Magneto would have just let the Marauders take their son. The damage to the living was likely the results of them resisting.

For some time, the Professor stood and gazed out at the view. He had to admit, despite the circumstances, seeing the city lit up like this was fairly spectacular.

Eventually sleep caught up with him, and Professor Xavier finally returned to bed.

* * *

The first thing that caught Professor Xavier's attention in the morning was the mechanical maid preparing breakfast in the kitchen. It was so unexpected that he stared at her in some surprise until Magneto arrived.

"Something amiss, Charles?" he inquired as he took his seat at the dining table.

"I just wasn't aware you had a robot," the Professor replied, absently sitting beside him.

"Hmm?" Magneto said, frowning slightly at him. "I recall you being introduced to Nanny just last night."

"I was?"

"Getting a little senile in your old age?"

The Professor frowned at Magneto, who just smiled grimly back as Nanny approached their table with plates in hand. Nanny placed plates in front of the two men, then another two in the seats beside them, and walked out of the kitchen.

Rogue arrived a moment later and joined them at the table. Nanny then reappeared with a boy of about twelve or thirteen years in tow. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, and much like Nanny, the Professor looked at him with curiosity. The boy noticed the Professor looking at him and pulled a face.

"Charlie, don't be rude," Rogue admonished.

"He was the one staring," Charlie muttered in reply as he poked at his breakfast.

The Professor cleared his throat.

"That's right," he said. "I apologise. I was just... he looks a lot like you."

Magneto gave Professor a rueful smile and scooped up his next mouthful of eggs. Uncomfortably, the Professor attended to his own breakfast. He didn't remember meeting Nanny at all, and he was sure that Rogue said Charlie had been taken by Marauders.

After breakfast, Nanny collected the plates and Magneto departed for work. Charlie took off to his room and the Professor followed Rogue into the living room. As if proof of his earlier thoughts, the walls were now spotless.

"Rogue," the Professor said cautiously. "I think the future may have changed."

"Oh?" Rogue said, looking at him with interest. "What makes you say that?"

"Because twenty-four hours ago, you told me the Marauders had taken Charlie."

Rogue stared at him in surprise. "I had?"

"Yes," Professor Xavier said and gestured around the room. "There were also scorch marks all over these walls, and those two windows were gone. Nor had I met Nanny."

"That's weird," Rogue said with a frown, having distinctly remembered introducing the Professor to Charlie and Nanny. "But I can tell you right now, Professor, the Marauders aren't going to take Charlie. Gambit would never take him from me."

The Professor looked at Rogue curiously. "What makes you say that?"

Rogue looked a little embarrassed. "Well... I think Gambit has a bit of a crush on me. I, uhh, I suspect he's waiting for Erik to, ahem, fall off the perch."

"Ahh."

Rogue's next words were quiet, "You may have noticed that Erik's quite a bit older than me."

"The thought had crossed my mind."

"And I may have kind of permanently absorbed a female clone of Logan," Rogue added ruefully. "Thus getting a healing factor—among other things—that will probably keep me young for many, many years."

Professor Xavier raised his eyebrows. He remembered when he met up with Logan in the Sentinel-ruled timeline that four female clones had been with him. Logan said something about finding them frozen in a Weapon X storage facility. One of them had been named Laura, although the Professor couldn't recall getting the names of the other three.

"Female clones of Logan," the Professor said slowly. "You found them in a Weapon X storage facility?"

"Well, that's where they were being kept at one point," Rogue said awkwardly. "Although I didn't find out until after I absorbed her. Unfortunately, the Marauders were the ones to find them. Last I heard, one of them was being used in a Marauder training facility, one of them ended up in the breeding pens, and ironically, the third is part of the Mutant Elite. I understand that they keep the last two based at two different breeding pens. The one I absorbed was actually working as one of the Marauders."

"I see."

"Anyway, like I said, Gambit wouldn't take Charlie from me," Rogue said firmly. "I know he wouldn't."

"When exactly did you meet him?" the Professor asked.

"While we were trying to get Emma's hand."

"Before or after I gave you the gambling information?"

"After."

"Ahh," the Professor said as he sat down, nodding thoughtfully. "Now, tell me, what happened after you got the gambling information?"

Rogue sunk down into a lounge chair and leaned back, taking in a deep breath as she prepared for her walk down memory lane.

"We contacted Gambit and let him know how much we were prepared to offer him. A meeting was arranged between us and the Marauders. We ended up offering Gambit some of the gambling information too as a bargaining chip. Gambit wanted time to confirm the reliability of our information," Rogue spoke each sentence slowly as she remembered the details. "We didn't trust the Marauders not to try and take it by force, and Logan didn't trust Gambit at all, so we followed him."

"He didn't like that, so he sold it to Sinister after all?" the Professor asked.

"Well, yeah, he didn't like it," Rogue said. "And the guy is smart; he figured out all sorts of ways to get around Logan's nose, even up to parking his motorcycle with other bikes because sharing a similar exhaust smell would make it harder for Logan to track."

The Professor nodded.

"And he did sell Emma's hand to Sinister in the end, but not because we were following him," Rogue went on. "You see, on our second night following him, we went to a night club where he picked up a one-night-stand. Well, we weren't going to intrude on his privacy, so we hung around the apartment block and we put a tracking device on his motorcycle. Unfortunately, Gambit found the tracking device, and by the time we realised he wasn't there any more, he was long gone. We split up to go look for him and ended up getting picked off by the Marauders."

The Professor paused. "Who died in the attack?"

"Kitty, Bobby, Kurt and Jean."

"Same as before," the Professor murmured. "Obviously I need to contact the past again and warn them."

Rogue nodded. "Tell them Gambit was staying at the Crowne Plaza."

* * *

**Present Time:**

Gambit was feeling rather pleased with himself as he casually strolled out to retrieve his motorcycle after midday the following day. Okay, sure, he'd gotten no further in solving the mystery of the diamond hand (Rogue had turned out to be a sensible drinker), but he had succeeded in evading her after 'accidentally' knocking one of the extra beers into her lap. He hid in the upstairs storage area and waited until about an hour after closing time before he finally left. As his hotel was nearby, he walked the distance with no sign of any X-Men.

So after a lengthy sleep in, and getting online long enough to put a bet in on the first horse race the X-Men had provided him with an outcome for, Gambit headed out. He didn't really like having to leave his motorcycle out in the front of the bar but if any of the X-Men had been hanging around when he left, turning on the engine definitely would have caught their attention.

There was a second red motorcycle parked by his own. He paid it little attention as he approached and pulled out his keys. Gambit frowned when he noticed a playing card taped to his seat, the words "look up" written on the back. Reluctantly, Gambit looked up.

"About time you got here, Swamp Rat," Rogue said.

Gambit sighed irritably as Rogue jumped off the narrow ledge halfway up the side of the building.

"I was getting bored waiting," she added as she hit the ground.

"Oh come on," Gambit said, pulling the card off his motorcycle. "There is no way you could have possibly known I was going to come back here."

The moment he said that, Gambit remembered the betting advice he'd gotten and wondered if that was actually true. He eyed Rogue suspiciously; she hadn't absorbed a precog or something, had she?

"You're right," Rogue smirked at him. "I had a hunch."

"A hunch."

"Mmmhmm," Rogue said and gestured to his motorcycle. "It was the only vehicle left near the bar with a Louisiana license plate, _Cajun_."

Gambit looked at Rogue's grinning face, then down at the plate. Swearing under his breath, Rogue laughed. Although irritated, the thief was not without a sense of humour, so when he lifted his head it was with an amused expression on his face.

"The other X-Men about?" he asked, glancing around the area, seeing if there was anyone else he missed.

"Now, that would be telling," Rogue replied slyly. "So, you gonna behave yourself this time? Or am I gonna have to chase you around some more?"

Gambit paused and deliberately checked her out. Despite being covered from neck to toe, her clothes were form fitting and showed off her body far more effectively than a short skirt and a plunging neckline.

Rogue glared at him.

"I can think of worse fates," he said, climbing on his motorcycle. "Where's your ride, chère? I hope you have one, 'cause there is no way I'm letting your soul-sapping skin get this close to me."

"Are you always this charming?" Rogue asked, climbing on the motorcycle next to him.

Gambit looked over Rogue on her red motorcycle and pulled on his helmet.

"Nice bike," he said. "But can you actually ride it?"

Gambit started his engine before Rogue could reply and took off quickly. He didn't lose her, but given traffic conditions, he hadn't expected to. It didn't take long for Gambit to spot the X-van following him. Wolverine on his motorcycle took him some time to notice though.

Not being the kind to take being tailed lightly, Gambit sped up and wove through the traffic. At the last minute he turned onto a side street. He grinned when he glanced in his mirror and saw Rogue still right behind him.

Gambit zoomed down the street towards a T-intersection. Once again, at the last minute, just seconds before ramming into a wall, he turned sharply, narrowly missing a car which swerved to avoid him and almost got Rogue instead. Horns blasted as Rogue straightened up and raced on after Gambit.

Logan growled under his breath as he fought to keep up with them. He had kept what he thought was a good distance behind them, as he wanted to be a bit more discreet about following. However, Gambit playing in traffic increased that distance more than Logan liked, the X-van already left behind.

Gambit's merry chase ended in a parking lot for Denny's. Pulling his helmet off, Rogue came up beside him. He smirked when she took off her own helmet. a ticked off expression on her face.

"I do like a woman who can keep up with me," he said before she could get a word in. "So, was that as good for you as it was for me?"

Rogue gave him a dirty look as Logan drove into the parking lot. Honestly, did this guy only ever think about sex?

"What are we doing here?" she asked.

"Breakfast," Gambit replied, dismounting his motorcycle.

"Breakfast? It's after one," Rogue pointed out, getting off her own bike.

Gambit chuckled as he swaggered to the front door. "And you wonder why I'm hungry."

Rogue made a non-committal grunt and followed him inside. Gambit asked for a table for two and the pair was shown to one by a window.

"So," Gambit said after looking through the menu. "What makes you my designated baby sitter?"

He wondered if Rogue would admit that she was trying to absorb him.

"Nothing really," Rogue replied coolly. "I followed you last night 'cause I was the only one who noticed you go. Today I'm just pissed off with you for pouring beer on me."

"Désolé, ma chère," Gambit said. "It was an accident."

"And the pigs are fed and ready to begin their aerobatics lessons."

Gambit laughed. Then he saw the cold glare Rogue was throwing at him and cleared his throat.

"Breakfast is on me," he said. "It's the least I can do."

"Yes," Rogue agreed. "It _is_ the least you can do."

While Rogue and Gambit ordered their food, Logan alerted the X-van as to their location and found a spot across from the window where he could keep an eye on them. Gambit couldn't help but notice and found the feeling of being watching very unnerving.

"I feel like I'm on a date with the father trying to play chaperone," he muttered to Rogue.

Rogue chuckled.

"You know, this is really unnecessary," Gambit said. "I do actually want to sell the thing. I'm not going to leave town until I do either."

"It ain't just about that, sugah," Rogue replied. "It's also about the fact that we don't trust Sinister not to send his Marauders to simply take the hand from you."

"I can take care of myself," Gambit said shortly.

"I'm sure you can, but we're not prepared to take the risk," Rogue informed him. "I promise, as soon as the sale's over, we'll leave you be."

"Uh huh," Gambit replied skeptically. "Tell me something; just why is Wolverine trying to do business with me at all? If you want it so bad, how come he's not roughing me up?"

"I can invite him in, if that's what you want," Rogue said flippantly.

"Not especially," Gambit pulled out a deck of cards, springing them from hand to hand. "I just know I'm not in the X-Men's good books right now."

"That's your own fault, Swamp Rat," Rogue smirked at him, leaning back in her chair. "Personally, I'm more interested in knowing how you got into Sinister's good books."

Gambit shrugged. "I'm not just a thief, chère, I'm the best."

Rogue nodded. "I thought that might have something to do with it."

Gambit just gave her a smile as the waitress arrived with their drinks. She did not need to know about the brain surgery he had to endure to get his powers under control. Fortunately, he had paid off his debt to the man and was not in the position of having the diamond hand demanded as payment. The more Gambit thought about it, the more likely it seemed that the diamond had something to do with mutants; it was the only thing that Sinister and the X-Men had in common. If this betting business paid off, he figured he'd sell it to the X-Men.

Of course, he wasn't going to tell Rogue that.

What Gambit did need to figure out was how he was going to shake the X-Men. He could tolerate Rogue's company for now, but there was no way he was going to let them find out which hotel he was staying at. Who knew what they might do to him in his sleep?

"So," said Rogue after a sip of her drink. "What's the plan for today?"

Gambit shrugged. Normally he'd meet with client, research a job, or just generally bum around. As far as he was concerned, the best part of the day was during the night. That's when he did most of his jobs, hooked up with women, and gambled. Thinking on this, Gambit decided he would pick up a one night stand; surely the X-Men had decent enough standards that they wouldn't follow him in while he was with company. He was pretty sure he could slip off while they were looking away.

"Want to go see a movie?" Rogue asked when Gambit didn't reply.

Gambit took a long drink. A movie was the last thing he wanted to do with Rogue; she'd no doubt sit right next to him and with that kind of a distraction going on, she'd probably take the first opportunity she got to absorb him.

"Are you asking me out on a date?" Gambit asked with a slight smirk.

"Please," Rogue scoffed. "I'm not that desperate."

"Not that desperate," Gambit repeated with a nod of his head, and his smirk broadened. "But you _are_ desperate."

"You could have just said 'no' rather than make insinuations," Rogue replied, glaring at him.

"Now where would be the fun in that?" Gambit asked, and he leaned in slightly towards her. "Maybe you should swap with someone else when I hit the bar tonight. See I'm going to be looking for that one night stand I didn't get last night and I wouldn't want you to feel undesirable."

"How thoughtful," Rogue said dryly. "Who would you like me to swap with? Jean? Storm?"

"Actually I was thinking more along the lines of Cyclops or Iceman," Gambit said, having a preference to be with an X-Man who could be easily distracted, preferably by other people.

"Aww, does the womaniser need a wingman?" Rogue mocked him. "How cute."

"You think I'm cute, chère? I'm blushing," Gambit replied as the waitress approached with their food. "Merci."

"Thank you," Rogue added as the waitress placed their plates in front of them. "Is that a blush? I thought it was your Chlamydia acting up."

Gambit snickered. "You don't know a whole lot about STD symptoms, do you?"

"No, but I'm sure you have plenty of firsthand experience," Rogue replied scathingly.

"Well, I would make a comment about how I've at least had experiences, but you've probably got lots of them floating around inside your head," Gambit said, picking up his burger. "Pity so few of them are actually yours."

"You want experiences, Louisiana?" Rogue said, glaring at him. "I'll give you experience. I'll give you experiences three ways to China."

"Been there, done that, got the t-shirt."

"Oh really? That explains your dress sense then."

Gambit grinned at Rogue's pointed look at his predominantly pink shirt.

"You know, chère," he said slyly. "There are studies that show that the femmes are attracted to colours on the red side of the spectrum."

He charged up the fork he wasn't using and it lit up with magenta light.

"Guess I'm a genuine chick magnet, no?" he said.

"You're up yourself, is what you are," Rogue replied as Gambit reabsorbed the charge.

"I think you're just frustrated I'm not up _you_," Gambit said without missing a beat.

"You know what? You're right," Rogue said, and Gambit raised an eyebrow. "I should swap with someone after lunch."

"Breakfast."

"Maybe for you, slugabed."

* * *

Rogue swapped places with Bobby and the first thing she did when she got back to the mansion was check up on Hank, Forge and Emma. She got there just in time to be in on a communication from Professor Xavier, letting them know which hotel Gambit was staying at.

"Well," Forge said, "I guess that means planting the tracking device on his motorcycle earlier was a little redundant."

"Oh well," Rogue replied with a shrug and a sympathetic look. "Better luck next time."

Meanwhile, Bobby and Gambit went to the arcade, where they actually had a good time playing against either other at various games. Gambit was even been able to ignore Wolverine watching him like a hawk the whole time.

Hours later, Kurt knocked on Rogue's door.

"Rogue?" Kurt called. "Are you ready to—"

The door opened and Kurt's eyes boggled out at the sight: Rogue was wearing a little red dress with black stockings, black knee-high boots, and opera length red gloves. She was showing a generous amount of cleavage, but fortunately, the dress covered her shoulders. Her hair was out and her white streak dangled across her face, a black hand bag hanging on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Rogue said, looking amused at Kurt's gaping expression. "What? Never seen a girl go out clubbing before?"

"I've never seen _you_ go out clubbing before," Kurt replied, sounding bewildered as he took Rogue's hand.

With a bamf, they were gone from the doorway of Rogue's room and inside the X-van. Normally Kurt didn't like to teleport into confined spaces, but in this case, he knew that the van would be sitting empty right outside of the night club Gambit had effectively dragged the X-Men along to.

Leaving Kurt in the van, Rogue confidently strode inside, keeping her eyes peeled for Gambit. She spotted Kitty and Jean dancing on the floor, Bobby doing what he thought was dancing, and finally saw Gambit over at the side (Logan not too far away, keeping a close watch on him), chatting with a tall, willowy blonde. Rogue sauntered by, made sure he caught her eye, and kept walking towards the bar.

Gambit had to do a double-take when he saw Rogue walk past. He doubted he would have recognised her at all if it weren't for the gloves and the white streak through her hair. He cleared his throat and turned back to the blonde—Jessica, or Jayden or something. He was going to ignore Rogue. Clearly, she was just going to try her own hand at seduction and he would not be distracted.

Gambit's resolve faltered when he noticed some other guy approach Rogue. Then it soon became evident that his conversation with the blonde wasn't going in the direction he wanted it to. Politely, he parted ways with Janine or Josie, or whatever her name was, and walked over to Rogue, who was now indulging in a drink the poor sucker had bought her.

"I'd stay away from her, if I were you, mon ami," Gambit said when he was close enough to be heard by both. "She ain't worth it."

The man frowned at him and Rogue looked at Gambit with disdain.

"Ignore him, Matt," she said. "He's an idiot."

"Ex-boyfriend?" Matt asked.

"He wishes," Rogue replied flippantly.

"I wish?" Gambit repeated. "_You_ wish."

"Whatever you have to tell yourself, Swamp Rat," Rogue replied, then flicked her fingers at him in dismissal. "Now, begone with you. I'm busy talking to a real man."

"She's poison," Gambit said, nodding his head sagely, and then leaned in towards Matt. "And if you don't believe me, try kissing her."

He was so sure that Rogue would flip out at the very suggestion, but instead she smiled at Matt.

"Please do," Rogue said, running her gloved fingers along Matt's bare arm. "And when you do, I want you to think of all the nastiest, dirtiest things you want to do to me."

Matt raised his eyebrows. "Oh yeah?"

Rogue leaned in towards him, her eyes bright as she chewed her bottom lip seductively. "Yeah."

"Okay then..."

Matt started to meet her lips but Rogue put her finger on his lips.

"Thinking those dirty thoughts, sugar?" she asked.

"Sure thing."

"_Real_ dirty?"

"Uh huh."

Gambit watched, a little perplexed, as Rogue kissed Matt. Lines spider-webbed across Matt's skin, making Gambit swallow anxiously. As soon as Rogue broke it off, Matt slumped over on the bar. Gambit heard Rogue make a sharp intake of breath and watched as she close her eyes, her body shuddered a little and her face went red. It was when Rogue opened her eyes and fanned herself that Gambit realised what she just did.

"You just got off on his fantasy," he said, not knowing whether to be horrified or impressed.

Rogue breathed out slowly and then pulled out her phone.

"Yup," she replied.

Gambit stared at Rogue as she tapped away on her phone. He couldn't help but start to wonder what she had seen in the other man's mind to have such an effect on her. This inevitably lead to him thinking about what kind of thoughts he would have given her had he been in Matt's position. She had her legs crossed too, which meant the short skirt on her dress had ridden up just high enough for him to see the edge of her thigh-high stockings.

"Matt," Rogue said as she wrote. "Thanks for the wild ride."

Gambit let out a long, slow breath.

"All hail the world's greatest cock tease," he said.

"At least I'm not a diseased-ridden whore," Rogue replied, not even bothering to look at him as she sent off the message.

"At least I've experienced the real thing," Gambit retorted.

Rogue smiled at him as she put her phone back in her bag.

"Don't you have some sleazing around to do?" she asked.

Gambit stared at her for a long moment, then turned and walked away. It was ridiculous just how much he wanted her right then. He had to find himself a brunette.

Rogue chuckled to herself as Gambit walked off, still keeping him in her sights. That wasn't exactly what she had in mind when she came in here, but she found it satisfactory nonetheless. The truth was, she had never actually tried anything like that before. The idea of asking Matt to think dirty thoughts had only come to her at the last minute, and as it turned out the man had quite the imagination. The look on Gambit's face told her that this was definitely something she should keep in mind for future reference.

Rogue turned her head as Logan sat down on the empty seat beside her. He glanced at Matt, then at Rogue, then put his eyes back on Gambit.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"I don't deserve to be treated like dirt just 'cause I can't touch anyone without hurting them," Rogue replied.

"Huh. I thought maybe you were trying to seduce him," Logan said.

"Me? Seduce him?" Rogue repeated in surprise. "I don't think so."

Logan shrugged. "Well, whatever you did, you turned him on. I haven't smelled that strong a mix of fear and sex pheromones in ages."

"I scared him and turned him on at the same time?" Rogue asked. "Oookay. You sure it was just Gambit and not Matt as well?"

"Just Gambit," Logan confirmed. "And it was definitely in response to absorbing... Matt."

"Huh. Well, it doesn't really change anything. He's still a womanising jerk," Rogue said, watching as Gambit introduced himself to a shapely brunette.

Logan shrugged. "He hated Lady Mastermind and Vertigo being all over him."

"He did?" Rogue asked dubiously.

"Sure he put on an act like he was enjoying their attention," Logan said, still watching Gambit without so much as blinking, "but he was definitely aggravated."

"Huh."

* * *

**1 Year in the Future:**

Rogue walked into The Dirty Glass, taking a moment at the door to look around. It was crowded and stuffy, but at least there were no signs of any Marauders. She headed towards the bar and bought a beer. It was only when she opened said beer that her eyes fell on the one Marauder she had missed: Gambit.

Rogue pursed her lips and pretended not to notice Sinister's favourite drinking something out of a glass. Unfortunately, he did notice her and took it upon himself to join her.

"Long time, no see," he said.

"Not long enough," Rogue replied, refusing to look at him.

"Aww," Gambit said, running his free fingers down her arm, "don't be like that, chère, I'm just being friendly."

Rogue looked down at his hand. "Well, that's remarkably brave of you. Last time we met, you couldn't stay far enough away from me. What happened? Finally grow some balls?"

"I was just taking precautions before," Gambit said, continuing to caress her arm. "I had no way of knowing you wouldn't try to absorb me to get the hand."

"You still have no way of knowing I'm not going to absorb your ass to death," Rogue replied coldly. "That'll be one less Marauder to worry about."

Gambit shrugged. "And you have no way of knowing I'm not going to kill you for rebelling against Apocalypse. I'll take my chances."

Rogue did not like the way he was looking at her. She took a swig of her beer.

"So, how have you been?" he asked when she said nothing in return.

"Just dandy," Rogue drawled.

She continued to give Gambit the cold shoulder, despite his attempts to engage her in conversation. Shortly after Rogue finished her beer, she spotted Boom Boom's arrival.

"Excuse me," she said. "I need to go to the ladies'."

Rogue pushed Gambit away and strode over to the bathroom, making sure to make eye contact with Boom Boom on the way. A few minutes later, Boom Boom joined her.

"Gambit's here," said Boom Boom in a low voice.

"I know," Rogue replied irritably. "He was trying to talk to me earlier."

"Yeah, well, he's waiting outside the door."

Rogue swore under her breath.

"We still making the switch?" Boom Boom asked, eyeing the bundle in Rogue's hand anxiously.

"Yeah," Rogue said. "It'll be safer with me."

"You sure?" Boom Boom asked, sounding dubious as they made the exchange.

Rogue folded the paper once more.

"Not even Gambit's a good enough pickpocket to get this without touching my skin," Rogue said decisively as she hid the paper inside her bra.

Boom Boom chuckled wickedly.

"I'll go keep Gambit busy," Rogue said.

"Good luck, hon," Boom Boom said with a nod. "You're gonna need it."

"Thanks," Rogue said dryly.

She left the bathroom and found Gambit waiting outside the door just as Boom Boom had said. She glared at him.

"You weren't waiting for me, were you?" she demanded. "That's just a little stalkery."

"I was hoping you and I could spend some time together," he said, "you know, forget allegiances for awhile."

Rogue sighed and noted the pool tables on the other side of the bar.

"Fine," she said tersely. "One game of pool."

Gambit smiled. "Bon."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Present Time:**

The X-men decided not to tip their hand and reveal to Gambit that they knew where he was staying. Instead, once Logan had confirmed Gambit's motorcycle was in the parking lot, they kept a discreet watch and waited for Gambit to make the first move. It was only when Gambit stepped into a local IHOP for breakfast (at two in the afternoon) that Rogue approached.

"Table for one?" inquired the hostess.

"Make that two," Rogue said from behind.

The hostess looked at Rogue, then back at Gambit.

"Two," Gambit confirmed reluctantly.

Neither spoke again until after they sat down at their table. Gambit ran his eyes over Rogue as she sat down and slung her brown leather jacket over the back of her chair. She was wearing brown cowboy boots, tight blue jeans, a brown leather belt, brown gloves and a checked, long-sleeved, blue shirt. The top two buttons of the shirt were undone, and being one of the only things Gambit had seen Rogue wear that wasn't as tight as a second skin, he found it oddly alluring. Not that he minded her preference for skin-tight clothes, not one bit.

"So," said Rogue as she lifted her menu. "Win anything yesterday?"

Gambit smiled, realising she was referring to the horse race.

"Oui, actually," he said, looking at his own menu. "But one out of four could still be a fluke."

"True. Did you put anything down on the two races today?"

"Oui."

They said nothing more until after they'd placed their orders.

"By the way," Gambit said in a lazy drawl. "It didn't work."

"What didn't work?" Rogue asked, inclining her head.

"Your pathetic attempt to make me jealous," Gambit replied, pulling out a single playing card and flipping it through his fingers.

Rogue raised an eyebrow. "Make you jealous? I don't think so."

"It was really very cute the way you tried to pretend to ignore me and flirt with other guys," Gambit said with a smirk. "Especially since you were actually supposed to be keeping an eye on me like a good little X-Man."

"Who says I wasn't?" Rogue asked, frowning at him. "And hey, did it ever occur to you that I wasn't interested in listening to all the pathetic lines you use when you're on the prowl?"

"And yet, the first night we met, you couldn't wait to prevent me from, ahem, going 'on the prowl'," Gambit replied with a smirk.

"Puh-lease, if you were so interested in picking up some poor girl why the hell were you sitting in the corner by yourself?" Rogue retorted hotly.

Gambit smiled wickedly at her, having no intention of conceding the truth.

"Please, chère," Gambit went on loftily, "don't make this any harder than it needs to be. I've had many femmes try to appeal to me through jealously. You're the same as any other woman."

Gambit was rather surprised when, instead of an angry reply, he received a genuine smile from Rogue.

"Why thank you, sugah," she replied. "I do believe that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

Rogue leaned on her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her interlaced fingers. She was rather amused by the baffled expression on his face. Gambit was silent for so long, Rogue could practically hear the cogs turning while he tried to figure out what she meant by that.

It wasn't until the waitress arrived with their drinks and he saw Rogue take hers with her gloved hand that Gambit realised where she had been coming from. In his experience, women liked to be told they were special in some form or another. No one liked to be told they were just like everyone else, no matter how true it might be. But Rogue really wasn't just like everyone else; Gambit could well imagine that Rogue had a hard time getting dates with her mutation. Undoubtedly prospective suitors had trouble looking past that. Upon reflection, Gambit decided he shouldn't have been so surprised she'd take "same as any other woman" as a compliment.

While Gambit and Rogue were busy eating, Logan, Jean, Kitty and Kurt were waiting in the X-van. Logan and Jean sat in the front, while Kitty and Kurt were in the back, Kitty with a laptop.

"Marauders are here," said Jean.

"Yeah?" Logan asked, looking around.

"Lady Mastermind, Vertigo and Arclight," Jean reported, then pointed behind them. "Somewhere in that direction."

"Hmm," Logan was trying to look through the back window.

"Allow me," said Kurt.

With a bamf he disappeared from the X-van. Jean followed him telepathically just to make sure Lady Mastemind didn't try any tricks on them. She didn't and Kurt soon returned.

"They're watching Rogue and Gambit inside," Kurt reported. "That's all."

"Well, let's keep a good close eye on them," said Logan.

The wait was boring but finally Gambit and Rogue emerged from the restaurant. No sooner than they were out the door, Lady Mastermind, Vertigo and Arclight approached.

"I'm going in," Jean had her hand on the door.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," said Kitty. "The Professor said—"

"I'm not just going to sit here," Jean said, opening up her door. "Rogue's mind might be hard to read, but Lady Mastermind doesn't need to read it in order to project an illusion."

She was out the door and crossing the street before anyone else could protest. Logan followed her and they got there just in time to hear Arclight say:

"…Sinister will provide you with information on your biological parents."

Gambit paused all so briefly and Rogue's eyes flickered with curiosity towards him.

"What kind of information?" Gambit asked Arclight warily.

"He knows who they are. Apparently your father is even still alive," Arclight replied, smirking.

Gambit hesitated for a moment.

"Okay," he said. "I'll take it under advisement. I'm still in the middle of investigating the X-Men's offer."

"See," Vertigo said scornfully to her teammates. "I told you he wouldn't go for it. Who cares who your biological parents are? Probably losers anyway."

"But just think," said Lady Mastermind, slipping a hand along Gambit's arm. "Knowing who your parents are can provide you with all sorts of interesting information, like family medical history." Leaning towards Gambit, her lips almost touched his ear. "A little bit of tweaking here and there and you wouldn't have to worry about family curses like cancer, heart attack, diabetes," she said, and added slyly, "going bald."

"Ahh," Gambit said with a grin, running his free hand through his hair. "You appeal to my vanity. Tell Sinister I am...intrigued by his offer. I'll let him know when I'm ready to make my decision."

Lady Mastermind glanced over at Jean and Logan.

"We'll be sure to do that," she said. "Oh, and Gambit? Let me remind you that we're not the ones following you around."

Gambit didn't reply as the Marauders sauntered off. He did, however, look back at Jean and Logan.

"Fancy meeting you here," he said dryly.

…...…...

"Okay new plan," Logan said once he was back in the X-van with Jean, Kitty and Kurt. "We're going to go to the Crowne Plaza, find out which room is Gambit's and search it top to bottom until we find the hand."

"What if he's not keeping it in his room?" asked Kitty.

"Then I'll beat it out of him," said Logan.

"I don't know, Logan," said Jean. "We have been provided the means to acquire Emma's hand, ahem, legitimately. Is this really necessary?"

"Jean, he was offered the chance to find out about his birth parents," Kurt said solemnly. "One of whom is apparently still alive. That's not exactly an opportunity you get every day."

Jean sighed. "I know what you're saying, but he didn't seem exactly enthused by the idea."

"Oh he was interested alright," Logan said. "He was doing the cool, calm and collected thing, but he was definitely interested."

"Okay," Jean said, a little reluctantly. "I guess we're doing this then."

"Right, let's go," said Logan, starting up the engine.

"What now?" asked Kitty. "What about Rogue?"

"She's keeping Gambit busy at the billiard hall," Logan replied. "Hell, he just had 'breakfast'. Now's as good a time as any to get into his room."

…...…...

**5 Years in the Future:**

Logan stopped talking mid-sentence as he caught a whiff of a familiar scent. The members of the resistance he was been meeting with in the alley glanced at him curiously.

"Logan?" inquired Jubilee.

Holding up his hand, he signalled for silence, stalking quietly upwind towards the entrance. He paused. Then in one swift movement Logan extended his claws, stabbing them through the man whose scent he had caught behind the corner.

"Madri," Logan said, glancing back towards the group. "We need to get out of here. He's probably already alerted the others."

No one said a word, but they all quietly followed Logan out of the alley and down to the nearest crossroads where they intended on splitting ways. Logan's nostrils flared in frustration, smelling the Madri everywhere. On the one hand, it was helpful that he knew the scent of every single one of Apocalypse's spies. On the other hand, the fact that all of Apocalypse's spies were duplicates of Jamie Madrox made it very difficult to tell just how many of them were around.

The crossroads were in sight when Logan stopped the group again and urged them deeper into the shadows. Although tempted, they knew better than to distract Logan with questions like "what's going on" when he was like this. Besides, odds were saying anything could alert the attention of whomever it was Logan didn't want them to get the attention of.

Then they heard the flapping of wings, followed by the landing of hooves. Jubilee dared to peek around the doorway towards the crossroads. She caught her breath sharply when her eyes laid on the Horseman of Death barring their way. Jubilee looked back in the direction they came from, the breeze blowing in her face. Logan caught her looking and shook his head. Jubilee got the message: they were trapped.

Logan signalled to the group, gesturing with his one good hand where he wanted them to go for the inevitable fight. His other hand was missing; lost when he had been busy relieving Scott of one of his eyes. Only a metal stump remained.

…...…...

**20 Years in the Future:**

One minute Professor Xavier was chatting with Magneto over coffee, discussing the completion of his final statue, the next he was standing outside by a wagon. The Professor frowned and looked around; there were a few other wagons and there were all in a square before a large gathering of people. The crowd was strangely quiet and it took the Professor a moment to realise that they were watching a play. Indeed, as he turned his head and looked around the wagon, he could see Forge, Toad and a few others he didn't recognise performing A Midsummer Night's Dream. He nodded to himself, remembering Rogue had said something about Forge running a theatre troupe.

That didn't answer the question of how in the world he got here, however.

He brought down the shields around his mind and listened telepathically to the people around him. It was then that he became aware of the band of Marauders surrounding them, and the unease of the crowd, despite the performance. He could hear the performers saying their lines only moments before they actually said them. The Professor was quite shocked when he came across the mind of one particular performer, a brown-haired man with a white streak, a blue glow in his left eye, and the most incredible telepathic presence he'd sensed since... well, since Jean actually. The Professor pulled back from him, not wanting to disturb his concentration.

A brief glimpse into Forge's mind told the Professor what he needed to know: Magneto had been the one to meet the Professor at the Mansion, and he had been the one to arrange for the Professor and Forge to meet after the performance. Where Magneto was now, Professor Xavier didn't know. Having nothing else to do but wait, the Professor watched the play.

The crowd was quick to disperse once the play ended, the performers quick to start packing up. The Professor hesitated, but waited where he was, and before too long, the performers returned to their wagons and Forge headed towards him.

"Professor," Forge said fondly, while leading him urgently into the wagon. "It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too, Forge," Professor Xavier replied, dipping his head to step inside the wagon. "I have to admit, I never expected to see you performing Shakespeare."

Forge chuckled. "Hank said the same thing. Coffee?"

"Please."

Forge set about boiling the water and getting the mugs ready in his technologically impressive wagon and the Professor sat down on a nearby lounge.

"Tell me," said the Professor. "What has happened? The last message I sent to the past was telling you of Gambit's whereabouts."

"Rogue kept Gambit busy while Logan, Jean, Kurt and Kitty searched his hotel room," Forge replied, leaning against the bench while he waited for the water to boil. "They couldn't find Emma's hand there, so they went after Gambit directly. Gambit died in the fight, and the Marauders—who had been hanging around—attacked them. Only Logan survived."

Professor Xavier frowned and steepled his fingers.

"I see," he said thoughtfully. "Had Gambit decided to sell it to Sinister after all?"

"As far as I know he hadn't made a decision yet," Forge said. "But Sinister had offered to tell Gambit who his father was, and Logan was pretty convinced that Gambit was going to take him up on that."

Anything more that Forge might have said was interrupted by the white-streaked young man entering the wagon. Forge smiled and gestured towards him.

"Professor, this is my adopted son, Nate Grey. Nate, this is Professor Xavier."

The Professor and Nate looked at each other and the Professor reached out his hand.

"Nice to meet you," he said.

Nate nodded and shook his hand. The water finished boiling and Forge poured the coffee.

"Nate's a telepath and a telekinetic," said Forge. "He grew up in those breeding pens of Sinister's."

"I see," said the Professor, getting what Forge wasn't saying: that Nate was likely the child made from the genetic material Sinister stole from Jean and Scott, prior to the incident with the Phoenix that had led to Emma's shattering.

"The Professor here has just woken up from a twenty year coma," Forge said to Nate as he handed out the coffee mugs. "The world was a lot different back then. The Professor has a way of communicating with the past. We're hoping that if we send back the right information, we can prevent this mess from ever happening."

Nate nodded slowly. "Does that include me?"

The comment made Professor Xavier quiet for a moment. If Forge was right about Nate's parenthood, it was likely that Nate would still come into existence, but what of other children that had been born in the past twenty years? What about Charlie? Since Rogue had died before her time, Charlie wouldn't have been born at all. For that matter, what about Marrow, whom he had met in the Sentinel ruled timeline? He had seen no sign of her in this one.

"Unless you're younger than you look," Forge said glibly, "then it's unlikely your birth will be affected. And that can be another message we pass on to the past; rescuing you from Sinister."

"Indeed," the Professor agreed. "And in the light of this information about Logan's attack on Gambit, I feel it's vital that I get to Cerebro and pass on that message as soon as possible. Since I've woken up in this... Age of Apocalypse, I have seen the timeline change three times now."

"Oh?" Forge asked. "How so?"

"For one thing, in the first two, Rogue was still alive," the Professor said. "What about Bobby?"

"He's alive," Forge said.

"So that too has changed."

"We'll go in the morning," said Forge. "It'll be curfew soon, and trust me, we do not want to be out during curfew."

"Curfew," the Professor said with a frown. "I don't recall Rogue mentioning a curfew here before."

"Maybe that's something else that's changed," Forge replied. "All I know is, this isn't exactly one of the friendliest neighbourhoods around."

"There are worse places," said Nate.

"Not by much."

The Professor hummed and thought that over. The men drank their coffee and talked for awhile before they finally prepared for bed.

…...…...

The troupe departed at first light the next morning, and chose to take the long way out of the city so they could stop by the Mansion. The Professor was feeling a little anxious, there was a limit on just how far back in the past he could send a message and he didn't want to lose the window of opportunity. Especially when it meant the lives of four of his beloved X-Men.

After what felt like a ridiculously long time to Professor Xavier, the wagons finally arrived at the clearing where Rogue usually parked her car. It saddened him to know that she was gone. Hopefully this new information would save not only her, but everyone else as well.

After the wagons stopped, the troupe exited and the Professor got his first good look and introduction to everyone. Theresa "Sonique" Rourke was Nate's red-headed girlfriend. Soaron, a green pterodactyl-like man. Brute, a large, heavyset man with brown fur. Jason "Mastermind" Wyngarde, an older man with the ability to create massive illusions and often did so to hide the troupe from prying eyes.

"Okay," Forge said to the group. "You guys stay here. Nate and I will take the Professor to Cerebro."

"Will do boss," Toad said with a cheeky salute.

Forge, Professor Xavier and Nate departed. As they headed up the trail, Charles inquired what it was like working with Toad when they were once on opposite sides.

"Nothing like a common enemy to get people working together, Professor," Forge replied. "Besides, Toad was hardly the most threatening of the Brotherhood. In fact, I'd say he's much more effective as a, ahem, spy, than he was ever capable of being a soldier."

"You could be right there," the Professor replied.

They finally reached the top of the hill and Forge pulled down the tree branch that hid the computer interface.

"Do you know the password, Professor?" Forge asked.

"No."

"It's 'he has to wake up sometime'," Forge replied glibly. "And it requires a thumb scan like so..."

The Professor watched as Forge pressed his thumb over the scanner.

"And voila! You've already been programmed into the system," Forge finished.

"Thank you," the Professor said.

The doorway appeared. Nate, who had been looking a little bored, abruptly turned in the general direction of the clearing.

"Nate?" the Professor asked, having noticed his inattention.

"Trouble at the camp, Forge," Nate said. "It's Domino."

Forge swore. "Alright, you go with the Professor—"

"Forge, I can help," Nate insisted.

"It's you she wants!" Forge exclaimed. "If you go there—"

"She'll what? Try to kill me?" Nate demanded. "She's already trying to do that, and now everyone else might get killed because of me."

"Nate, please," Forge said earnestly, "you haven't finished your training. Just go with the Professor."

"I think he can make it to Cerebro on his own from here," Nate said, as he backed down the trail. "I have to help them, Forge."

"Nate!" Forge called, but Nate had already disappeared down the trail.

"Go," the Professor said. "Nate is right, I can get to Cerebro from here. You should help your friends."

Forge gave Professor Xavier a nod, and then hurried after Nate. The Professor stepped through the doorway, determined to get to Cerebro as quickly as possible. The entrance shut and disappeared behind him.

…...…...

Domino held her gun to Toad's head.

"Where is he, Toad," she demanded.

"Uhh, where's who?" Toad asked nervously.

"You _know_ who," Domino said, glaring at him. "I know he's here. Caliban tracked him."

Toad glanced over to the oversized hulk that was Caliban.

"Oh yeah?" asked Toad. "Well, huh, if he's so good then why doesn't he find him?"

Domino pressed her gun harder into Toad's head. "Don't push me, Toad."

"Let him go!"

Domino turned her head to see Nate appear in the clearing.

"It's me you want," Nate said, his hands up in the air as he walked towards them.

Domino didn't hesitate. She turned her guns on him and shot. Neither bullet hit the target, instead they slammed into the telekinetic wall Nate created. This didn't deter Domino from shooting more, counting on her good luck powers to see that at least one bullet would hit him.

"Aww come on Dom," said Toad. "Leave him alone."

"Shut it, Toad," Domino replied. "I have a job to do."

"Yeah," Toad said scornfully. "Working for Apocalypse. If he's so great and godlike, why does he need Nate killed? Unless of course, he's not so great and godlike after all."

Domino turned one of her guns on him and fired.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Present Time:**

Logan, Jean, Kurt and Kitty pulled up in the X-van outside of the Crowne Plaza. Logan had his hand on the door to open it when his phone rang.

"What?" Logan demanded upon answering it.

"Uhh, hi Logan," Bobby said. "We just got a message from the Professor."

"Yeah?"

"He said that you're not going to find Emma's hand in Gambit's hotel room, and if you go after him, you'll kill Gambit and still not get Emma's hand," Bobby spoke as if he was reading off a sheet of paper. "He said to wait and let Gambit make his decision."

Logan growled irritably.

"Fine," Logan said tersely and hung up.

"Logan?" Kitty asked.

"Mission's off," Logan said, punching in another number into his phone.

* * *

Gambit knew he wasn't doing himself any favours admiring Rogue's fine backside while she leaned over the pool table, her tight blue jeans accentuating it perfectly. Her phone rang as she straightened up and Gambit turned his head, focusing his gaze on the table so she wouldn't realise he'd been checking her out. Rogue didn't seem to notice him either way and pulled out her phone.

"Rogue," she said when the phone was to her ear.

"Do whatever it takes to get the damn Cajun to sell to us," Logan barked.

"Mmmhmm," Rogue drawled. "I'm just going to pretend for both our sakes that I didn't get what you really meant by that."

"Rogue—"

Rogue hung up before Logan could say another word, slipping her phone back into her jacket pocket.

"What did they really mean by what?" Gambit asked, looking at her from over the top of his cue.

"Never you mind, Swamp Rat," Rogue replied, gesturing at the table. "I believe it's your turn."

"That it is," Gambit went back to contemplating his next move.

Rogue watched as Gambit lined up his pool stick with the cue ball at various angled before finally deciding on one. The fact of the matter was that, even if she was so inclined to follow Logan's implied order, she had no idea where to start. She usually only pulled out the seductress moves when she wanted to absorb someone who was unaware of what she could do and needed to be subtle about it. Gambit knew what she could do, was avoiding getting physically close to her for that exact reason, and had even accused her of trying to seduce him so she could do just that.

The cue ball smacked into the fifteen-ball, knocking it into the corner pocket. Gambit wandered around the table to make his next shot.

It occurred to Rogue that Gambit had also accused her of trying to make him jealous in the club the night before. She also remembered what Logan said about Gambit being turned on by the incident with Matt. Rogue hid her smile as she came to the conclusion that the best way for to seduce Gambit would be to flirt with other guys and otherwise play hard to get. The idea amused her.

"Your turn," Gambit said when he failed to sink another ball.

Of course, Rogue didn't know what good it would do trying to seduce him. She was pretty sure Gambit was quite capable of making his decision without allowing pretty women on either side influencing him in that manner. Besides, what would happen after the transaction was made? There were consequences she didn't want to have to deal with.

Rogue eyed the table, lined the cue ball up with the four-ball, and became quite conscious of Gambit's eyes on her. She gave the cue ball a light tap, it hit the four-ball at just the right angle to roll into the side pocket.

"So," Rogue said as she sauntered around to the other side of the table. "You don't know your biological parents?"

"I believe that was established earlier," Gambit replied coolly, somewhat irritated with Arclight for basically announcing that in front of everyone.

"I don't know mine either," Rogue said, her eyes on the table. "They died when I was too young to remember them."

Gambit didn't reply. He just watched as Rogue leaned over the table again, her shirt dropping down just low enough to give him a peek at her cleavage. He was sure she was wearing it just for his benefit. Rogue struck the cue ball and watched as the seven slowly rolled towards the pocket.

"Bet you must be pretty interested in finding out who your parents are," Rogue said conversationally. "Maybe even meeting your father."

Gambit smiled as the seven-ball stopped just short of the pocket and moved around the table to consider his next shot.

"Bit of a leading question there, chérie," he offered.

"That's not exactly an opportunity that comes up every day," Rogue replied evenly.

"Thinking about offering me something else?" Gambit asked slyly.

"Don't have to," Rogue said as Gambit walked between her and the table. "Either finding out about your parents is important to you, or it's not. If it's the former, I doubt there's anything more we could offer you to change your mind. If it's the latter, then Sinister hasn't offered you anything of value."

Gambit leaned over the table and Rogue was provided with a rather nice view of his behind. Her eyes darted back at the pool table quickly, not wanting to acknowledge—even to herself—that for all his flaws, Gambit was pretty good looking. Gambit gave the cue ball a tap and sent both the fourteen and the nine into the corner pocket.

"He also offered me the chance to not have to worry about going bald," Gambit said blandly as he straightened up.

Rogue snorted contemptuously.

"Please," she said scornfully as Gambit wandered around the table once more. "If you know Sinister even half as well as I suspect you do, then you also know that going under that man's knife voluntarily is a really stupid thing to do."

Gambit subconsciously touched the back of his head with his free hand. His fingers grazed over the spot where he had done just that.

"Yeah," he said grimly. "Stupid."

He dropped his hand and lined up his next shot. It took Rogue a moment before she realised why the view didn't look quite right.

"You're ambidextrous?" she asked.

"Mmmhmm," was his reply.

"Cool," Rogue said as she watched Gambit tap the cue ball and send the last of his large-numbered balls sailing towards the pocket. "I have to do those shots behind my back."

"I know," he replied, sounding smug. "Eight ball in the side pocket."

Rogue made clicking noises with her tongue as Gambit proceeded to sink the black pool ball.

"Another game?" she asked.

"Sure, why not?" Gambit replied. "I'll even let you break."

"How kind of you, oh gracious one," Rogue said dryly as she slipped a coin into the slot.

Gambit grinned at her as the balls were released. He gathered them up to set the table while Rogue moved the cue ball into position.

"You play poker at all?" he asked.

"Nope, but Wolverine does," Rogue replied, watching Gambit drop the balls into the triangle. "Why?"

"I was thinking of hitting a little bar I know, playing a few games with the guys," Gambit said.

"Oh?" Rogue inquired with a raised eyebrow. "Favourite hangout of yours?"

"I travel a lot, chère," Gambit said evenly, finally removing the triangle, putting it away. "I have favourite hang outs all over the place."

"In other words, knowing places you like to go does us no good if you're not even in the area."

"Right. So what do I care?" Gambit asked, watching Rogue lean over and getting that view down her shirt again. "Besides, you have my calling card. Any time you need a thief..."

"Not worried about a trap?" Rogue inquired, striking the cue ball and hitting the balls decisively.

Gambit shrugged. "I know how to take precautions. Been in this business all my life."

The eleven fell into the corner pocket, so Rogue moved around the table to line up her next shot. Gambit watched as she proceeded to knock another one of her balls in, then one of his. She grumbled and he grinned.

While Gambit decided on his move, Rogue heard the words "Legacy Cure" and looked up at one of the TV screens. One of the ads for Worthington Pharmaceuticals' mutant cure was playing. Since providing them with the formula to cure the "Legacy Virus", the Professor informed them how Worthington's "Cure" does its own mutation into a deadly virus that would threaten to wipe out mutants. Xavier said he was still looking into how to prevent it from getting out into the public in the first place.

"Your turn," Gambit said, and when he noticed her inattention, prompted with, "Rogue?"

"Hmm? Oh," Rogue said, turning back to the pool table. "Sorry."

"Hmm," Gambit glanced at the TV screen, noting the Worthington Pharmaceuticals' logo disappear as it switched to a car commercial. "Interested in that 'cure' they keep harping on about?"

Rogue didn't reply, looking at the table but unable to focus on the game. She couldn't help but wonder, had she been one of the mutants to take the Legacy Cure? Was she dead twenty years from now?

Over the past few years Rogue had adapted to not being able to touch anyone. She had even reached the point where she could take her powers in stride. But at the end of the day, she still felt liked she had been cursed where others had been gifted.

"You are, aren't you?" Gambit said when Rogue didn't reply.

"Knowing my luck it'll probably turn out to be a bio-weapon," Rogue said after a long silence. "I think I'll pass."

She leaned over the table and lined up her pool stick with the cue ball.

"What about that power inhibitor collar?" Gambit asked, remembering his earlier commission to steal it, which was his first encounter with the X-Men.

"No good for long term use," Rogue replied, giving the cue ball a light tap.

Gambit's eyes were on Rogue as she watched the balls move on the table. He knew she couldn't have skin to skin contact without her power kicking in, but it was only at that moment it really hit home for him. He couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like.

"Your turn," Rogue said.

The thief gave her a final look before returning to the game. There was no point in letting it worry him; after all, there wasn't a thing he could do about it.

When Rogue and Gambit had their fill of pool, they departed and returned to their motorcycles.

"You know, chère," Gambit said as Rogue got onto hers. "Cowboy boots are meant for riding horses, not motorcycles. Not enough ankle support."

"I know," Rogue replied, then shrugged. "If I have a bad accident, Wolverine's not that far away; I can just borrow his healing factor."

"Convenient."

"I thought so."

The pair took off and Gambit was tempted to try and loose the X-men again but decided he really couldn't be bothered. Besides, they were probably expecting it, and he did enjoy being contrary when the occasion permitted. Upon arrival at The Dirty Glass, Gambit wandered up to the X-van. Jean rolled her window down.

"So," said Gambit, with Rogue only a couple of steps behind. "Who's up for poker? Wolverine? I understand you play."

Jean glanced across at Logan, who shrugged. "Sure."

Logan got out of the van and Rogue went to his side.

"Mind if I borrow you?" Rogue asked him. "I could use a crash course in poker."

"Sure darlin'," Logan replied and held his hand out to her.

Gambit watched as Rogue took off her glove and touched Logan's hand all so briefly. Logan staggered and Rogue tilted her head slightly to the side as she took in what she just picked up from him.

"Neat trick," Gambit said.

"It has its advantages," Rogue replied. "We going in?"

Gambit inclined his head and when they got inside he went up to the counter and caught the eye of the barman.

"Boys out back?" he enquired.

"Yup," the barman replied. "Go in on, Gambit."

Gambit gave him a nod then gestured for the two X-Men to follow him. In the back they found four men sitting around a table with cards, beer, and a pile of cash in the middle.

"Well, well, well, look who it is," said one of the men, glancing up at the new arrivals. "Long time no see, Gambit."

"Gambit?" repeated another man who turned in his seat to have a look. "Dammit, put your glasses back on. Those demon peepers of yours are enough to put anyone off their game."

Chuckling, Gambit fished a pair of dark sunglasses from his pocket as the third man inquired about his company with a bit of a leer at Rogue.

"This is Rogue," Gambit replied, gesturing to each in turn. "And this is—"

"Logan," Logan said.

Gambit raised his eyebrow. He hadn't expected to receive that information. He knew some of the real names of the X-men, but Wolverine's was one that eluded him (still, 'Logan' wasn't all that helpful on its own). He had no idea what Rogue's real name was either.

"Hal, Jerry, Sam," Gambit said, gesturing to each in turn, "and Tim."

"Nice to meet y'all," Rogue said, sitting down next to Tim.

Logan sat next to Rogue with Gambit across from them next to Sam. The four men finished off their round, and then the cards were passed to Sam as this round's dealer.

"Hope you deux brought along enough cash," Gambit said to Logan and Rogue, then glanced at the others. "Heck, for that matter, I hope yous did too."

"Now I remember why I don't miss you," Hal said.

Gambit grinned at him.

"So, Rogue is it?" Tim said, looking at her.

"Mmmhmm," Rogue murmured in reply, fingering the collar of her shirt. "You boys come here often?"

"Every night, just about," said Hal.

"Heh, every night his wife lets him," Jerry corrected with a snicker.

"It's a proven fact that married men live longer," said Hal.

"Nah, it just feels that way," said Gambit.

"Alright, small blind's five, big blind's ten," Sam dealt out two cards each. "Gambit. Logan."

Gambit fished out the five dollars for the small blind while Logan put a ten dollar note on the table. Everyone looked at their cards, face down on the table. Rogue checked her hand against Logan's psyche and folded.

"I might go back out to the bar and get some water," she said. "Be right back."

"Get me a beer, too," said Logan.

"Sure thing, sugah," Rogue replied. "Did you want anything, Gambit?"

"I'll have a beer as well, merci," Gambit replied after a moment's hesitation.

Multiple pairs of eyes were on Rogue as she sauntered out of the room, hips swaying from side to side. When she returned, Logan and Hal were the only two players left in the game. Rogue passed the beers to Logan and Gambit before opening up her water.

"Beginner's luck," Hal muttered when Logan's beat him with a straight.

Logan smirked and collected the pool of money in the middle. Gambit chuckled as he retrieved the cards. He opened up his beer with one hand and shuffled the cards with the other.

"Neat trick," Rogue said, watching the cards weave together.

Gambit gave a half shrug.

"Practice, chère," he said. "Lots and lots of practice. I don't imagine you wouldn't know a whole lot about that. Not if you're in the habit of taking 'crash courses'."

"Only when the circumstances demand it," Rogue replied.

"The circumstances demanded it?" Gambit asked with a sly smile. "Aww, and here I was thinking you just wanted the pleasure of my company."

"I could describe your company as a lot of things, Swamp Rat," Rogue drawled, "but 'pleasurable' sure ain't one of them."

Jerry burst out laughing and Hal grinned at her.

"I like her," Sam said to Gambit with a nod towards Rogue.

"Oh, trust me, chère," Gambit casually dealt everyone two cards each by flicking them across the table in such a way that they remained face down the whole trip. "Women always find my company _pleasurable_."

"I'm sure they do," Rogue replied flippantly, placing the ten dollar big blind on the table. "I imagine that most of that pleasure comes in the form of you being quiet."

"I'm not sure that quiet is the right word," Gambit said wickedly, putting down the deck, "but I don't do a whole lot of talking, if that's what you mean."

Rogue checked her cards, then smiled sweetly at Gambit.

"I guess I'll never know for sure," she said ho-humly.

"Wait," said Jerry to Gambit. "Did you bring a woman here you _haven't_ slept with?"

"Must be getting slow," Tim said, grinning as he put his money in the pot. "Call."

"The ol' silver tongue not what it used to be?" asked Sam.

"Call," said Hal.

"Even I have standards," Gambit said casually.

"Fold," said Jerry.

"Yeah, right," said Sam. "Fold."

"Call," Gambit put in his ten dollars. "Sure I do. I don't sleep with anyone who owes me money."

"I don't owe you a damn thing, Cajun," Rogue retorted while Logan called.

"Yet," Gambit said with a slight smirk and he dealt the first three community cards.

"And you know all about 'yet', don't you, Tim?" Jerry said with a teasing grin at his friend.

Gambit glanced over at Tim, "I should start charging you interest."

"Raise 10," Rogue said after a second glance at her cards.

"Fold," said Tim, pushing his cards away. "It's those demon peepers of yours."

"You're just jealous," Gambit replied good-naturedly.

"Call," said Hal.

"Not likely," said Tim.

"Sure you're not," Gambit put another ten dollars on the table. "Call."

"Fold," threw in his hand.

"I am," said Hal while Gambit dealt the fourth community card. "I'd terrify the mother-in-law if I had those eyes."

"Check," said Rogue.

"Personally, I'm amazed you can get any women with those eyes," said Tim while Hal checked as well.

"Raise 10," said Gambit, putting in the required money. "Everyone knows women always love bad boys. Ain't that right, Roguey?"

"Nah," Rogue replied. "I'd much rather have a gentleman. Call."

"Fold," said Hal.

"That's what they all say," said Jerry, while Gambit dealt the final card. "Yet any time you try to do the gentlemanly thing, like giving flowers, holding doors open for them or just paying the bill, they get all uptight. Next thing you know, you're getting a lecture on how they're not helpless because they're women, and how strong and independent they are and blah blah blah."

"Check," said Rogue. "Screw them. I'm a lady and I expect to be treated that way by any gentleman expecting to court me. In turn, I'll treat him like a gentleman. See? Equality, right there."

"Raise 10," Gambit leaned back in his chair. "I find it interesting that you claim to be a lady, and yet only last night you asked whatever-his-name-was about all the dirtiest, nastiest things he wanted to do to you."

"Call," Rogue said, putting her money in. "Mmmhmm, and as I recall, that conversation was _your_ idea."

Rogue and Gambit revealed their cards. Gambit won to Rogue's annoyance. The cards were passed onto Logan who started shuffling.

"I don't know, chère," said Gambit, eyeing her up. "You wear pants, you fight, you call people names... you're not exactly painting a picture of a lady right now."

"But she does wear gloves," Sam said with a grin, pointing. "That's got to count for something, right?"

"My clothing does not dictate my ladylikeness," Rogue replied with dignity, surrendering the small blind while Logan dealt everyone two cards. "Everyone should know how to defend themselves. And if you actually have a problem with being called 'Swamp Rat', Swamp Rat, I'll stop calling you that as long as you stop calling me 'chère'."

"Maybe I should start calling you 'River Rat'," said Gambit as he glanced at his cards. "And I believe that cock teasing is not ladylike behaviour at all."

"You're the only one who has ever accused me of being a cock tease," Rogue replied, leaning back smugly in her chair while Hal opened the betting. "I don't know why. I've never even suggested that I'm interested in you in that manner, you know, mostly because I don't want your disease-ridden carcass anywhere near me."

Logan hid his frown behind his poker face. He knew Rogue had turned down his implied instruction to seduce Gambit but he hadn't expected her to retaliate by insulting Gambit instead.

"Shot down," Jerry said, grinning. "And fold."

"It's nice to know Gambit doesn't always get the girl," Tim said while Sam folded too.

"Yet you still hang around me like a bad smell," Gambit replied flippantly, pushing his cards aside. "Fold."

"Oh, you don't like my scent?" Rogue asked sweetly while Logan also folded. "It's called 'clean'."

Jerry snickered.

"What are you laughing at?" Hal asked Jerry. "You could do with a clean yourself."

Rogue glanced at her cards.

"Call," she said, putting in the required money. "So, boys, what is it y'all do?"

As the night progress and the game continued, both Gambit and Logan watched with growing irritation while Rogue was delightful and charming to Hal, Jerry, Tim and Sam. Logan, because he was convinced that Rogue was just doing it to be contrary; and Gambit, because he figured she was supposed to be sucking up to him. Gambit went out of his way to make her pay attention to him, even deliberately losing a couple of rounds.

Gambit didn't know why it bothered him so much. Just a few days ago he hated the idea of Rogue hanging around and now he felt like he'd been reduced to a sulky little kid because he wasn't getting any attention from her. She was flirting with his friends and only had snarky remarks for him. One part of Gambit had this crazy urge to just pull her from her chair and kiss her senseless. He was pretty sure that would get her attention. The problem with that plan, however, was the fact that he was the most likely person to end up senseless and he just didn't think he could afford to be absorbed by her.

After his fifth purposely thrown round, Gambit made his decision. After tonight he would avoid being in group situations with Rogue, then she would be forced to give him her undivided attention.

* * *

**20 Years in the Future:**

About half an hour after Professor Xavier had passed on his message, Nate Grey, Sonique, and Soaron arrived at the Mansion. He was devastated to find out that Forge, Toad, Mastermind, and Brute had all died during Domino's attack. Mastermind's illusions had not been enough to hide them from Caliban's ability to locate mutants and attempting to do so only served to persuade Domino to kill him first. Nate Grey had killed Domino.

The Professor was disappointed that the attack hadn't been averted, but it was possible that it was too early for his message to change the future, as odd as that idea sounded.

"Okay," Sonique said, joining the men in the living room. "I just contacted Magneto. He's sending someone around to eliminate any trace of us outside and make sure the area's secure."

"Well, they're probably a few hours away," said Soaron. "I'm gonna go stretch my wings."

Soaron left the room and Sonique declared she was going to check on supplies, dragged Nate along with her, leaving the Professor to smile to himself with thoughts of "young love".

It wasn't until just before midday that Magneto's representative arrived. The Professor was both thrilled and relieved to see Rogue alive and well, if a little disappointed the obvious change in the timeline wasn't enough to prevent the attack on the theatre troupe.

* * *

Professor Xavier sat at the dining table over dinner with Rogue, Magneto, and Charlie. Nate, Sonique, and Sauron had stayed at the mansion, Nate being told he had to stay in the Z'noxx Chamber.

"I know it's not comfortable, but it's only for a few days," Rogue had told Nate. "Then we'll attack Apocalypse. In the meantime, this is the safest place for you to be—for all of us."

Nate very reluctantly agreed.

As the Professor ate his dinner, prepared by the talented Nanny, he happened to glanced over at Charlie. All the Professor did was blink, and Charlie changed from a boy with short blonde hair, to a girl with long brown hair. He dropped his fork in surprise. The female Charlie looked up and saw him staring at her.

"What?" she demanded.

"Charlie," Rogue said, frowning at her.

"He's staring at me," Charlie insisted, pointing at the Professor. "You're the one always saying it's rude to stare."

"Ahem," the Professor said, clearing his throat. "I do apologise, Charlie, I was... thinking and not realising where I was looking. I didn't intend to stare."

Rogue grunted and pushed her now empty plate aside.

"Erik?" she said. "Would you mind lending the Professor one of your suits? I was going to take him to Heaven tonight."

Professor Xavier was a little startled at Rogue's remark, but garnered from the thoughts around him that 'Heaven' was actually an exclusive night club. Magneto agreed to the request and after everyone left the dinner table, the Professor followed Magneto into his bedroom.

"Here, this one should fit you, Charles," Magneto said, pulling the suit out of the wardrobe. "It may be a little long in the leg though."

"Thank you," the Professor replied, noting as Magneto handed him the suit he was no longer wearing his wedding ring. "I assume Rogue wants me to meet someone in particular at this... Heaven?"

Magneto let out a long, drawn out sigh. "Yes. Rogue managed to make a valuable contact in the most unlikely of Marauders, Gambit."

Professor Xavier paused briefly before responding: "Isn't he in charge of the local chapter?"

"One of the many reasons why he's of value to us," Magneto said.

"Of course," the Professor said, then asked cautiously: "Are Rogue and Gambit... close?"

Magneto was silent for a moment. "Let me put it this way, Charles, I have no idea if Charlie is mine or not."

* * *

**AN:**

Female Charlie was inspired by "Plague" from a story in **Millennial Visions 2001**. Plague had the ability to create robotic viruses which she called 'MicroSentinels'. She was the daughter of "Rogue Darkholme" – Rogue and Raven fused together. Rogue Darkholme was married to Magneto and spent half her time with him, and the other half with Gambit. It was said that Magneto often wondered if Plague was actually his.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Present Time:**

Gambit was sitting in his hotel room at his computer, checking up on his bets from the day before. The X-Men's tips had paid off and he was rather hopeful about how the fourth and final horse race would go. His phone rang.

"Gambit," he said, not bothering to check the caller.

"How much longer were you needing to make your decision, Gambit?"

Gambit froze, recognising Sinister's voice. He cleared his throat.

"You'll have my decision tonight," Gambit answered.

"Good, I tire of waiting."

Sinister hung up and Gambit shivered as he put his phone down.

* * *

**20 Years in the Future:**

Professor Xavier was not really surprised to find Heaven located in one of the more prestigious areas of the city. It was on the top floor of one of the taller buildings and there were multiple bouncers, not only at the entrance, but at the elevators as well. The Professor was eyed suspiciously by all of them but Rogue evidentially had enough pull with them to get him into the club.

Once in Heaven itself, Rogue led the way past the dance floor and bar to one of many plush curtains along one wall. She pulled it open just enough for her to step through, the Professor following. As the curtain shut behind him, Charles was rather surprise to see Rogue practically throw herself into the arms of the sole occupant of the room and kiss him thoroughly. How she was able to touch anyone outside of the modified Z'noxx chamber at her home, he didn't know.

The Professor looked away uncomfortably while they kissed. The room was dominated by a table for four, a bottle of champagne on ice sitting atop with four glasses. There was a large floor-to-ceiling window which looked out on the city, framed by thick, plush red curtains. Angel wings were engraved into the panelling.

When the kiss started to go on long enough to get embarrassing, the Professor coughed politely. Rogue pulled away, but kept one arm around the waist of the man with black and red eyes.

"Sorry," she said. "Professor, this is Gambit. Gambit, this is Professor Xavier."

"A pleasure to finally meet you," Gambit held out his hand to him. "I've heard a lot about you."

"As have I," the Professor replied, shaking Gambit's hand firmly. "It's good to be able to finally see you in person."

Gambit gave him a nod, then gestured to the well laid out table. "Please, have a seat."

The Professor did so while Gambit and Rogue sat across from him. He noted the static around Gambit's mind, creating a natural psi shield. Between that, and the patchwork state of Rogue's mind, the Professor realised he'd get no easy answers.

"Rogue told me you were expected to be in a coma for twenty years," Gambit said. "I assume you just woke up recently?"

"Yes," Professor Xavier replied. "Just a few days ago."

"Send many messages back to the past?" he asked with a slight smirk.

"Enough," the Professor answered seriously. "And each time, this future has changed in small ways, but not enough to prevent Apocalypse from taking over."

"Oh?" Gambit asked, pouring the champagne. "How so?"

The Professor pondered for a moment, then said: "Well, for one thing, when I first awoke in this timeline, Charlie was a boy."

"Really?" said Rogue, regarding him with amusement.

"Indeed. He'd also been... recruited by the Marauders."

Gambit blanched as he passed the glasses of champagne around.

"The one thing I have been trying to avoid," Charles went on, "is the X-Men's fight with the Marauders over Emma's hand, but it seems inevitable," he sighed. "Jean, Bobby, Kurt and Kitty die each time. The one time I managed to prevent Bobby's death, both of you died instead."

Rogue and Gambit looked at each other.

"Huh, well, you're right about it being inevitable," Gambit said. "Sinister was only ever interested in Emma's hand as a curiosity. What he was really interested in was eliminating the X-Men as a potential threat to his and Apocalypse's plans. Jean was the main target. He had given the Marauders orders to follow the X-Men and to engage them if Jean was present and they had an opportunity. Once I told Sinister I wouldn't be selling to him, he told the Marauders to attack immediately."

Gambit looked down at the base of the champagne glass. Rogue reached over, took his hand and squeezed it gently.

"You didn't know, sugah," she said softly. "It wasn't your fault."

"Agreed," the Professor said, nodding decisively. "And we have a chance to prevent their deaths."

"We know when and where they're going to attack," Rogue said hopefully. "They caught us by surprise, and Kurt teleported off at the beginning to get Scott and Storm, who were on standby at the mansion. He wasn't gone very long, but if Scott and Storm can be with the others at the beginning, that's three more fighters we could have at the start. The other thing that threw us off was that there were three new Marauders in addition to Lady Mastermind: Scrambler, Scalphunter and Riptide. Storm may be our best chance against Riptide; he spins very fast and shoots shurikens out of his body."

"Scrambler can also disrupt powers and electronic devices, things like that," Gambit added. "It's based on touch though, so if the X-Men stay out of physical contact, their powers will stay intact."

"This also means his powers and mine neutralise each other," Rogue said grimly. "Found that out the hard way."

"Scalphunter is a technomorph with a healing factor," Gambit went on. "Lady Mastermind should be taken out as soon as possible. She used her illusion abilities to disadvantage the X-Men extensively, I'm sure that's what got Jean killed."

"Yeah, she was probably so distracted trying to dissolve Lady Mastermind's illusions she wasn't aware of her physical danger," Rogue said, nodding in agreement. "And they're going to be gunning for Jean, so she needs to be protected."

Professor Xavier nodded thoughtfully. He was uncomfortable with this talk of 'taking out' and hoped that it would translate into 'disable' rather than 'kill'. He didn't want to tell his X-Men to kill.

From there the conversation turned into a heavy discussion of tactics, and which X-Men would be best against which Marauder. There was discussion of who—if anyone—Rogue should absorb. Rogue couldn't remember exactly which Marauders had taken out the X-Men who had died and the Professor wasn't able to easily access the memory on account of all the voices she had absorbed over the years.

"I'm not going to be of any help, I'm afraid," Gambit said. "I bailed first chance I had. There was no way I was getting in the middle of a battle between the Marauders and the X-Men. I didn't know it at the time, but Sinister had told them not to attack me unless I attacked them first."

"Maybe I should absorb you," Rogue said cheekily.

"You're assuming I'd let you," Gambit replied. "I was avoiding contact with you like the plague, remember? I thought you might try to steal the hand from me or something."

"What did happen to Emma's hand?" Professor Xavier asked curiously.

"I sold it to Sinister," Gambit said. "At the time I thought that the fight was about the hand and if I sold it to the X-Men—or what was left of them—that Sinister would just send his Marauders after them again."

"He did get it back for us a few years later," Rogue said, smiling fondly at Gambit. "Unfortunately, it was still too late for Emma. By the time we found another high level telepath there was no psychic residue left in the diamond."

"I see," the Professor said thoughtfully.

"Hey, Prof," said Gambit, leaning forward on the table. "Can you tell them to tell me they're trying to save Emma? It was driving me crazy not knowing what the big deal was, and if we do change the past successfully, I may not find out later like I did this time."

The Professor smiled. "I'm sure I can arrange that."

"Merci."

"Anything else?" the Professor asked. "I understand that Sinister offered to tell you who your father was."

Gambit froze.

"Remy doesn't like talking about that," Rogue told the Professor. "I'm not sure who his father's supposed to be but whoever it is, it wasn't good news."

"I had a feeling I didn't want to know in the first place," Gambit grumbled. "I really hope we succeed in changing the timeline here, because I'd rather not sell the hand to Sinister at all. How many chances do we get at this?"

"One," said the Professor. "I can only communicate so far into the past."

Gambit nodded. "If the X-Men get slaughtered again, I won't sell to them. Remember, I think that Sinister is after the hand, not the X-Men themselves."

"I'll be sure to make sure they know," Professor Xavier replied. "Hopefully, it won't come to that."

* * *

**5 Years in the Future:**

The resistance group moved on Logan's signal, and stepped out of the shadows to confront those who had interrupted their meeting. Upwind, back the way they came, was a squad of Marauders. Downwind, towards the crossroads, was the Horseman of Death. Jubilee stood by Logan to face Death, while Rogue faced the Marauders with the rest of the group.

For one moment time seemed to slow down as they faced each other off, then Logan roared and lunged towards Death, sparking the inevitable attack. The Marauders and the resistance collided.

Jubilee flung fireworks at Death, disorienting him and keeping him off guard for Logan to attack. Rogue found herself in combat with a young girl, no more than early to mid teens, with claws from her hands and feet. At first Rogue wanted to go easy on her—she was just a kid!—but they were badly out numbered and despite how she looked, the young Marauder girl was tough enough to give even Logan a run for his money.

Death lashed out at Jubilee, sending her sprawling to the ground. Logan could smell the blood even before he saw it. Logan dissolved into a berserker rage; it was just him and Death.

Rogue gasped for breath as the Marauder girl's claws stabbed through her chest.

_"So, this is how it ends," _she thought.

But Rogue was unwilling to die without doing everything she could to save the lives of her friends. Her clothes had been ripped in the fight, and she had more than enough skin showing to touch the Marauder girl with. Rogue's arm touched the girl's bare one, the absorption began, and as the girl grew weaker, Rogue gripped tighter on her. The Marauder girl had no name, Rogue realised, she was only known as "X-23-B", and had two clone sisters, plus the original, X-23 "Laura". Rogue felt her wounds heal up as she stole X-23-B's healing factor.

Another Marauder came up behind her, and without even thinking, Rogue extended her free hand, and the two bone claws therein. Her claws sliced across the Marauder's neck, and he fell to the ground, lifeless.

Rogue looked at X-23-B. She knew she should let go. She was alive. She didn't need to absorb X-23-B to death like she'd originally planned in order to prevent her from slaughtering her friends. Still Rogue held on, even though tears started pouring down her cheeks. This was a war, and the X-23s had been raised to be weapons. Maybe, in an ideal world, the X-23s could be saved and taught to live a normal life.

But this was not an ideal world.

Rogue didn't let go until every last drop of life X-23-B had was inside her. And then she turned on the other Marauders.

Badly injured, Jubilee came to just in time to see Logan standing over the body of the Horseman of Death. Logan must have heard her move, for he turned his head towards her.

"You okay, kid?" he asked, but before Jubilee could answer, Logan's eyes began to glaze over.

"Logan?' Jubilee asked worriedly. "Logan?"

Jubilee watched, uncertain whether she should move, as Logan shuddered and growled in a nonsensical fashion. She was saved having to make a decision by the arrival of the rest of the group. Rogue sniffed the air.

"Hellion, take care of Jubilee," Rogue said authoritatively. "You need to get her to Elixir asap."

"Right," Hellion said, lifting Jubilee off the ground telekinetically. "What about Logan?"

Rogue swallowed.

"It's too late for Logan," Rogue said, fighting to keep control of her voice. "The Horseman of Death is dead, that makes Logan the new Horseman. We need to go before he turns on us."

* * *

**1 Year in the Future:**

Rogue walked into The Dirty Glass, taking a moment at the door to look around. It was crowded and stuffy, but at least there were no signs of any Marauders. She headed towards the bar and bought a beer. It was only when she opened said beer that her eyes fell on the one Marauder she had missed: Gambit.

Rogue pursed her lips and pretended not to notice Sinister's favourite little Marauder drinking something out of a glass. Unfortunately, he did notice her, and took it upon himself to join her.

"Long time, no see," he said.

"Not long enough," Rogue replied, refusing to look at him.

"Aww," Gambit said, running his free fingers down her arm, "don't be like that, chère, I'm just being friendly."

Rogue looked down at his hand. "Well, that's remarkably brave of you. Last time we met, you couldn't stay far enough away from me. What happened? Finally grow some balls?"

"I was just taking precautions before," Gambit said, continuing to caress her arm. "I had no way of knowing you wouldn't try to absorb me to get the hand."

"Yeah, speaking about that hand," Rogue said, glowering at him. "I seem to recall you saying you were going to sell it to us."

Gambit coughed uncomfortably.

"Well, I was," he insisted, "but... but then the Marauders attacked you."

"Really? I hadn't noticed," Rogue replied sarcastically.

"Oh come on, Rogue," Gambit said irritably as Rogue took a swig of her beer. "A diamond hand is not worth losing lives over. If I had gone through with the sale, they just would have gone after you at the Mansion. So excuse me if I didn't want more deaths on my conscience."

"Yet, you still joined the Marauders," Rogue pointed out snidely.

"I could see which way the wind was blowing," Gambit replied. "We all do what we have to in order to survive."

"Even if it means the loss of your personal integrity? Oh, what am I saying?" Rogue said. "You didn't have any in the first place."

"I know what's important," Gambit said firmly. "And a stupid chunk of diamond isn't worth anything if you're dead."

"That diamond hand belonged to a telepath named Emma Frost who had the ability to change into a diamond form," Rogue practically spat at him. "She was still alive even after she was shattered into pieces in that diamond form. We were trying to save her. I'd say that 'stupid chunk of diamond' was worth a lot to her."

Gambit let out a long, slow breath.

"I didn't know. Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

"Why do you think we didn't tell you? We couldn't trust you!"

Gambit skulled down his drink and signalled to the barman.

"Another please," he said as he put his glass on the counter.

"Trying to drown your guilt?" Rogue asked nastily.

"I didn't know that the hand belonged to a living being, I only suspected it was mutant related," Gambit replied tersely. "I know where Sinister keeps it. I'll see if I can get it."

Rogue snorted.

"Too late now. We need a telepath to put her together, and Jean Grey is dead," she said bitterly. "No thanks to your little friends."

"I was not going to get in the middle of a fight between the X-men and the Marauders," Gambit said. "I did what I had to in order to avoid more deaths. I'm so sorry that offends you."

"What offends me is the hypocritical garbage that's coming out of your mouth," Rogue snapped. "You go on about trying to save lives, but you're with the Marauders, Gambit. They take the lives of innocent people in Apocalypse's name every day."

Gambit picked up his refilled glass and looked at it dismally.

"Yeah," he said grimly. "Don't remind me."

Nothing more was said between them, although they stayed together while they drank. Shortly after Rogue finished her beer, she spotted Boom Boom's arrival.

"Excuse me," she said, not knowing why she felt the need to say anything. "I need to go to the Ladies'."

Rogue strode over to the bathroom, making sure to make eye contact with Boom Boom on the way. A few minutes later, Boom Boom joined her.

"Gambit's here," said Boom Boom in a low voice as she walked over.

"I know," Rogue replied. "We were talking earlier."

"Yeah, well, he's waiting outside the door." Boom Boom said, eyeing the bundle in Rogue's hand anxiously. "We still making the switch?"

"Yeah," Rogue said. "It'll be safer with me."

"You sure?" Boom Boom asked, sounding dubious as they made the exchange.

Rogue folded the paper once more.

"Not even Gambit's a good enough pickpocket to get this without touching my skin," Rogue said decisively as she hid the paper inside her bra. Boom Boom chuckled wickedly.

"I'll go keep Gambit busy," Rogue said.

"Good luck, hon," Boom Boom said with a nod. "You're gonna need it."

"Thanks," Rogue said dryly.

She left the bathroom, and found Gambit waiting outside the door just as Boom Boom had said. She glared at him.

"You weren't waiting for me, were you?" she demanded, "because that's just a little stalkery."

"I was hoping you and I could spend sometime together," he said. "You know, forget allegiances for awhile."

Rogue sighed and noted the pool tables on the other side of the bar.

"Fine," she said tersely. "Wanna play some pool?"

Gambit smiled. "Sure."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**Present Time:**

There was a knock on Rogue's door while she was just putting on her boots and she called for them to enter.

"Oh good, you're awake," said Kitty. "We just got a message from the Professor."

"Yeah?" Rogue asked, zipping up her boot. "What's happening this time?"

"Well, the good news is that Gambit's going to agree to sell to us. The bad news is that when he tells Sinister, the Marauders are going to come after us," Kitty filled her in. "They've got newbies as well. Logan wants us to meet in the war room so we can discuss what the Professor told us about them."

"Okay," Rogue nodded and stood up, "I'll be right down."

* * *

Towards the end of a somewhat lengthy discussion in the war room, Rogue glanced at the clock and noted they would have to get going soon if they wanted to be able to follow Gambit before he left the hotel. As she was about to say so, Scott piped up:

"You know what's wrong with this plan?" he said. "Jean's involved in the fight."

"Excuse me?" Jean said, glaring at him.

"We know they're going to be after you, Jean," Scott insisted, looking at her earnestly. "We know that in the future the Professor has seen, they succeed. You should stay here, at the mansion with Hank and Forge. Besides, assuming we do get Emma's hand back, without you we can't bring her back and we'll be down two X-Men."

"You need me to protect you against Lady Mastermind's illusions," Jean said stubbornly.

"Rogue can absorb you."

"Uhh, Scott," Rogue said. "There's kind of a time limit on these things."

"Kurt can teleport Jean to you right before the fight," Scott said. "We know when its going to be, after all. You can absorb Jean then Kurt can take Jean home and come back for the fight."

"And if the Professor was right about the Marauders watching us—" Rogue began.

"He is. I've sensed them on and off," Jean said, still glaring at Scott.

"—then they'll know Jean isn't there and that I have her powers," Rogue finished.

"But you're not their priority target, Rogue, and you can always absorb Logan's healing factor if things get rough. That's more than what Jean can do," Scot said, then looked towards Logan. "You agree with me, right Logan?"

Scott was sure that if there was only one person he could count on to help keep Jean safe, it was Logan. Even if his reason for believing that was based on the fact that he knew Logan had eyes for her. Before Logan could reply, however, Hank spoke up.

"If I may offer an alternate opinion," Hank said. "Keeping Jean here at the mansion may not keep Jean quite as safe as you would hope. We know that the Marauders are watching us. It may be that upon realising that Jean is not with us, they would then split forces and send the second team to the mansion. It's the most logical place, and while our defences are formidable, they are not foolproof. It is possible that we may win on the battlefield, but end up losing on the home front."

"You, Forge and Jean, all dead," said Storm gravely. "And if that is not bad enough, they may also choose to take Emma back to Sinister."

"She's almost completely back together too," said Forge. "We should be finished by the end of the day, other than her hand that is."

"Jeannie comes with us," Logan said, looking directly at Scott. "We know they're after her in particular, and that give us the best chance of protecting her. Besides, we do need psychic protection and that's Jean's forte, not Rogue's. Rogue of greater value to us if she can concentrate on the physical battle."

"Thank you, Logan," Jean said.

"And on that note," Rogue said. "I believe we have a certain Cajun thief to catch up with."

* * *

Gambit eyed Rogue curiously when she showed up wearing her X-Men uniform. Although he had seen the others in theirs, it was the first time he'd seen her in one. He wouldn't have let it bother him, except he realised Rogue was really edgy about something. He took these two things to mean that she was expecting trouble. Question was, were they expecting trouble from the Marauders or were the X-Men planning on making trouble for him?

He didn't let his concern show, just continued to keep an eye on Rogue, making sure to keep out of arm's reach of her. Rogue treated his usual diligence with disdain.

After 'breakfast' they headed to The Dirty Glass where they mostly bummed around playing pool. Gambit's poker playing friends weren't there yet, and wouldn't be for a few hours. After their umpteenth game of pool, Gambit glanced at the time, then checked his PDA for the race results.

"So," he said, looking up at Rogue, who was leaning on her pool cue. "Just how many of these horse race results were you planning on offering me?"

"Ten," Rogue replied, feeling a little weird taking on the job Storm was going to do.

"Twenty," Gambit said.

"Fifteen, take it or leave it."

"Done. Congratulations, the X-Men just bought themselves a diamond hand," Gambit said. "I prefer payment via electronic transfer."

"We have a daily limit," Rogue said. "It'll take a few days before we can get you the full amount. But I can get you the fifteen races today."

Gambit nodded thoughtfully. "Okay, races today, and when the first transfer appears in my account—tomorrow, I assume—I'll give you the hand."

"Okay," Rogue fished out her phone. "That's fair. I'll get the list prepared and ask Kurt to teleport it here."

"Bon," Gambit said.

While Rogue rang the team, Gambit wrote his account details on the back of a playing card. He then rang up Sinister to inform him there would be no sale. They both hung up at roughly the same time, Gambit gesturing to a nearby table. There was a solemn look on her face that concerned him.

"I'd say this is cause for a celebration no?" Gambit said as she sat down.

"Sure," Rogue replied with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

Gambit eyed her for a moment, then went to the counter to order a couple of glasses of champagne. He returned to the table and slid Rogue's over to her.

"I suppose you've been wondering why we want the hand so much," Rogue said, looking at the glass in front of her.

"Not really my business, chère," Gambit replied, sitting down and leaning back in his chair with feigned disinterest. "As long as you can pay our agreed price, you can desire it for any reason you want."

"It belongs to a friend of ours," Rogue said wryly. "Emma Frost."

"The telepath?" Gambit inquired. "Member of the Hellfire Club?"

"Yep," Rogue said slowly with a nod. "She has a secondary mutation, she can turn into a diamond form."

Gambit sat very still. He looked down at himself and then back up at Rogue.

"A diamond form," he repeated cautiously.

"She was shattered during the recent Sentinel attack," Rogue went on, deciding to leave out all the Phoenix messiness. "We gathered up the pieces with the intention of burying her but Jean discovered she was still alive."

Gambit felt just a little bit sick. He had the good fortune to pick the pockets of someone who had managed to find Emma's hand and a number of shards. The hand had been wrapped up but the shards were jumbled up together in a bag, scratching each other. He wasted little time in selling off the shards but the hand he knew he could get a very good price for. The idea that they were pieces of a real person horrified him.

"We've been collecting all the pieces and trying to put them back together so we can restore her back to life," Rogue went on, oblivious to Gambit's train of thought. "Don't know if it'll work, but we have to try. The hand is the last piece we need."

Gambit nodded slowly. "Cute story, chère, very heart-warming, but you're not getting a discount."

Rogue made a rude noise.

"We never told you because you've been known to sell out your own kind for money," Rogue wasn't hiding her disgust. "I'd say the odds were pretty good you'd try to exploit the situation to get a high price. Or accuse us of playing the sympathy card."

The thief gave a slight shrug and leaned forward. "Well, the deal's done now," he lifted his glass towards her. "I wish you good luck in saving your friend."

Rogue looked at him in silence for a moment, then lifted her own glass to clink it with his. "Thank you."

Smiling, he took a good mouthful of the champagne. Rogue only took a light sip before putting the glass down again. Was that another reason why the fight had gone bad? Had she drunk too much champagne when the Marauders arrived?

"What about your father?" Rogue asked after a moment. "I realise you've given up your chance to find out who he is by dealing with us."

"Knowing my luck," Gambit shrugged, "I'll probably end up dealing with Sinister again, although I'd really rather not. And frankly, Rogue, while I'll admit to some curiosity about my biological parents, if someone like Sinister knows who they are, I'm probably happier not knowing."

Rogue laughed. "You have a good point there," she said with a nod of her head.

Gambit grinned at her, taking another sip of his champagne, noting the smile from Rogue's face slowly die away. She was awfully subdued for someone on the verge of saving her friend's life. Before he could come up with a way to find out what was bothering her, however, there was a bang outside. Turning his head, he was just able to see the X-van being blown off the road by Arclight.

"Just remember Gambit," she stood, her eyes focused on the outside, noting that Kurt had teleported everyone out of the X-van. "We made a deal this day. Whatever happens with the Marauders, I expect you to honour it. Sinister doesn't even want Emma's hand; he just wants us dead."

Rogue ran outside before Gambit could summon a reply. He did, however, jump up and follow her to the door. The X-Men had formed a loose, protective guard around Jean Grey and the Marauders surrounded them on all sides. Unless Gambit missed his guess, it looked like all the Marauders except for Multiple Man were here. That made sense; the last time Gambit had seen Multiple Man, he'd been assigned as Sinister's personal bodyguard.

Scalphunter and Harpoon let loose bullets and harpoons towards the X-Men while on the other side, Riptide spun in circles, letting loose his shurikens. Iceman shielded the group from the initial volley with an ice wall and Cyclops blasted Harpoon's harpoons before they could get close as they were the only things that could get past the ice wall.

Storm took to the skies and wrapped up Riptide in a whirlwind of her own. While Riptide was almost certainly still shooting away, Storm's winds contained the shurikens. Both Jean Grey and Lady Mastermind had their hands to their heads as if concentrating on the psychic level. Iceman iced Scalphunter over before he could do any more shooting.

Harpoon switched to throwing his projectiles at Storm, Cyclops kept blasting them. Arclight disrupted the X-Men's formation around Jean, but was immediately attacked by Nightcrawler. Gambit watched in fascination as Nightcrawler teleported after each blow.

Vertigo made Shadowcat, Iceman and Wolverine dizzy so when Blockbuster knocked Scalphunter free of his icy prison they both verged on the shaky X-Men along with Scrambler. All at once, Scrambler disabled Iceman's powers, making him revert to his human form; Blockbuster attacked Wolverine; and Shadowcat stood up and started walking towards Vertigo. It took Gambit a moment to come to the conclusion that Shadowcat's phasing must protect her from Vertigo's powers.

While Shadowcat and Vertigo tangled, Rogue sneaked up behind Blockbuster, absorbed him and threw him at Scrambler. Blockbuster and Scrambler flew a little way through the air and came to a crashing stop, Scrambler being squashed by Blockbuster's unconscious body. Iceman's powers restored quickly while Rogue headed for Lady Mastermind. Unfortunately, the newly defrosted Scalphunter opened fire on Wolverine and Iceman. The bullets shattered Iceman to pieces and Wolverine tackled Scalphunter who exchanged his gun for his sword.

"Jean!" Cyclops yelled.

Gambit turned his head just in time to see Jean hit a wall with a sickening thud. Judging from the blast point on the ground, Arclight had managed to let off another shockwave, a big one undoubtedly intended to disable Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler appeared in midair just behind Arclight and fell to the ground. Arclight turned on the blue mutant to deliver the final blow and Gambit gaped as he saw Acrlight being iced over. How? Iceman died didn't he?

The Cajun turned his eyes towards the icey pile that had been—and still was—Iceman and gave a low whistle. Iceman's body slowly reformed back into shape. He didn't know the young X-Man could do that! The thought occurred to Gambit that if Rogue hadn't gotten rid of Scrambler when she had, Scalphunter's bullets would have penetrated Iceman's flesh-and-blood form, and then he really would have been dead.

Thinking of Rogue, Gambit's attention went back to the saucy Southern woman who was tangling with Vertigo. Lady Mastermind was on the ground, undoubtedly comatose just like Blockbuster. Shadowcat was rubbing her head and looking around disoriented. Gambit's guess was that after Jean had been disabled, Lady Mastermind had trapped Shadowcat in an illusion and when Rogue absorbed Lady Mastermind she freed Shadowcat of the illusion. Rogue then tackled Vertigo to prevent the Marauder from killing her teammate.

Scrambler finally managed to pull himself out from underneath Blockbuster. He grabbed Cyclops, who was still zapping Harpoon's harpoons in between fretting over Jean. Cyclops would have liked to have shot at Harpoon directly, but the Inuit Marauder wisely stayed out of Cyclops' direct line of sight. Cyclops was then forced into hand-to-hand combat with Scrambler when his powers became disabled. Storm started deflecting Harpoon's weapons as well as keeping Riptide contained with her winds.

Vertigo dropped to the ground when Rogue's hand grabbed her forehead. Shaking her head and blinking a few times, Rogue ran lightly towards Riptide using Vertigo's powers to disorient him. Without his personal whirlwind to keep him in place, Riptide was swept up by Storm's. Flying up into the air he was flung a long, long way away. Gambit wondered if Riptide's power would come back before he hit the ground.

Her main concern dealt with, Storm turned her attention to Harpoon. As the Weather Witch's whirlwind dissipated, Gambit raised his eyebrows at the number of shurikens that clattered to the ground. Rogue used Vertigo's powers on Scrambler, Harpoon and Scalphunter in that order. Cyclops, Storm and Wolverine took advantage to disable them.

Gambit turned his head at a tap on the shoulder. It was the barman. "I just called them MRD," he said. "You might want to make yourself scarce."

"Merci, mon ami," Gambit replied.

The barman gave him a nod before heading back behind the counter. Gambit swaggered outside towards the X-Men, who were busy collecting themselves. He gave them a slow clap.

"Well done, mes amis," Gambit said loudly, half walking to the X-Men and half moving towards his motorcycle. "Been awhile since I've seen the Marauders have their butts handed to them. Actually, I've never seen the Marauders have their butts handed to them, so kudos to you. By the way, the MRDies have been called, so you may want to think about getting out of here. Oh and Rogue? I'll see you at the Outback Steakhouse at about seven. Be sure to have that little 'deposit' we discussed earlier."

"The nerve of that little—" Scott began.

"Forget him," Logan said as Gambit drove off on his motorcycle. "How's Jean?"

"Unconscious. We need to get her to Hank," Scott told him.

"Kurt's out for the count," Logan said, glancing at Kurt. "Rogue?"

"On it," Rogue said, passing over her keys. "For whoever takes my bike. Want me to lift the X-van upright before I go?"

"Sure."

"Kitty?" Storm said, kneeling by her young friend.

"I'll be okay," Kitty said as Rogue used Blockbuster's super-strength to put the X-van back on its wheels. "Just a little dizzy."

"Alright, Bobby, ice over these guys would you?" Logan said grimly. "We wouldn't want them to give the MRDies any trouble."

Bobby, who had now fully reformed, took a deep breath. "Yeah, I think I can do that."

"Here, allow me to assist you," said Storm while Rogue walked over to Kurt and absorbed him.

Storm took to the air and sprinkled a little rain which Bobby used to freeze over the Marauders. Rogue picked up Kurt in her arms and carried him over to Jean. Rogue knelt down beside her and touched her covered shoulder. In a bamf, Rogue, Jean and Kurt were gone. Logan checked the X-van and determined that it would still start. Storm drove off in the X-van with Kitty and Bobby, while Logan and Scott took the motorcycles.

By the time the MRD arrived, there were seven people encased in blocks of ice waiting for them, and a big mess to clean up.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**Present Time:**

When Rogue showed up at the Outback Steakhouse, Gambit was not expecting her to be fully clad in black leather. Not that he was complaining. The boots and gloves he'd seen before, the pants and jacket, not so much. After they were shown to their table, Rogue took off her jacket. Instead of a plain shirt underneath, as Gambit had anticipated, Rogue was wearing a black leather halter top with a sheer shirt to cover up the considerable amount of skin the top didn't. If Rogue noticed Gambit's eyes bulging out of their sockets, she didn't comment.

The view of Rogue's ample cleavage was then hidden by her holding up the menu to view. Gambit coughed and picked up his own. He found it a little hard to focus for he kept trying to figure out what Rogue's game was here. Was she still trying to seduce and absorb him?

Eventually the waiter came around to take their orders. After he departed, Gambit found himself in the position of trying not to admire just how well the halter top fit Rogue. He cleared his throat.

"So, uhh," he said, forcing himself to look Rogue in the eye. "Is everyone okay? Them Marauders sure can pack a punch, hein?"

"Shadowcat's fine. She was mostly disoriented from Lady Mastermind's illusion," Rogue said. "Nightcrawler and Iceman should both be fine after a good night's sleep. Jean's got a bad concussion; she'll need a couple of days to fully recover."

Gambit nodded thoughtfully.

"I'd say you survived pretty good," he said appreciatively. "Mostly minor injuries. No one died. I had no idea Iceman could pull himself back together like that. I have to say, I was impressed."

"Iceman didn't know he could either," Rogue replied with a grin. "He must have been operating largely on adrenaline for the remainder of the fight because he fell asleep on the way back. I had to carry him to his room."

Gambit chuckled.

"Thanks for asking," Rogue added with a small smile.

Gambit shrugged. "What about you, chère? How's it having three Marauders in your head?"

"No worse than having half a dozen ninja assassins in my head," she replied.

"Seriously?"

"Mmmhmm."

"Just how many people you got in that pretty little head of yours?" Gambit asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I've lost count," Rogue answered with a shrug. "I do take issue with Lady Mastermind's dress sense though."

Gambit paused to take a moment to reappraise Rogue's clothes. Rogue smirked at him.

"So, did you already have those clothes, or did you buy them especially?" Gambit asked slyly.

"I think I'll just let you wonder about that," Rogue replied coyly, reaching inside her top for a folded sheet of paper. "By the way, this is the... deposit... we agreed on earlier."

"Ahh," Gambit said, accepting the paper.

He unfolded it, glanced at the contents, then folded it up again and put it in his pocket.

"Excellent, merci," he said. "As soon as your first payment appears in my account, we'll make the exchange."

"Good. Storm made the payment when we got back, so it should have made it in before the bank cut off time," Rogue said. "If not, it'll show up the day after tomorrow."

"Bon."

After that the conversation turned to more trivial matters, when they spoke at all. Gambit found himself thinking that he was actually going to miss her company when this was all over, and the idea amused him. He liked her attitude and her smart mouth. He adored the sparkle in her eye when she came up with something particularly scathing to say to him, and the way they flashed in anger when he retorted with something just as nasty. One way or the other, he was going to see her again after the deal was concluded.

* * *

After breakfast (at two-thirty in the afternoon) the next day, Rogue and Gambit headed to The Dirty Glass. The X-Men's payment had come in overnight, and they were finally going to make the exchange.

"Anyone out the back?" Gambit asked the barman as they passed.

"No, go right ahead," he replied.

Gambit nodded and Rogue followed him to the back room. Rogue, dressed in her usual black and green clothes, yawned while Gambit shut the door behind them.

"I don't see why you couldn't have given me the hand while we were at IHOP," Rogue said.

Shrugging, he pulled out a small silver case from his coat. He placed it on the table and Rogue picked it up. She opened it to find it lined with foam, cut so that a hand could fit neatly inside it.

There was, however, no hand.

"This is empty," she said.

Rogue was rendered silent when she heard the sound of a zipper being undone. Her annoyed expression dissolved into shock when she realised he'd just undone his fly in front of her.

Gambit hid the smile on his face as he reached inside his pants to pull out a pouch made of the same kind of material as his body armour. Zipping his pants back up he watched as Rogue blinked and then went beet red from embarrassment. He gave her a grin as he pulled a small, wrapped package from the pouch. He unwrapped the parcel carefully.

"You've been keeping Emma's hand down your pants this whole time?" Rogue demanded when she finally found her voice.

"It's not nearly as perverted as it sounds," Gambit replied mildly. "Most people, when they frisk you, politely stay away from certain areas. This little pouch is very useful for smuggling things."

"I'm sure it is," Rogue said dryly, watching as Gambit placed the hand gently into the case.

"Normally I wouldn't put something of quite this size in there," Gambit went on. "But I trusted neither you X-Men, nor the Marauders. I decided I should keep it the safest place I knew."

"And you decided to show me all of this because why?" Rogue demanded, her eyes blazing. "You could have just put it in the case earlier you know!"

Gambit grinned at her as he closed the distance ever so slightly. "I decided I wanted to see the look on your face," he said smugly.

"Why you little—"

Rogue got no further as she was stunned into silence once more, this time by Gambit grabbing hold of her waist and pulling her into him.

"You and I," he said, lifting one hand to run it through her hair. "We shall meet again, ma chère. Although, I hope it's not because you decided to stint me the balance of my payment."

Rogue licked her lips, her hands pressed tight against his chest. Her face was hot and she sincerely hoped he thought she was still red-faced from before.

"What happened, Gambit?" she demanded. "You never came anywhere near me before. Finally grow some balls?"

"Finally freed my balls," Gambit replied with a cheeky grin. "Do you have any idea how painful it can get when you've got a big hunka diamond shoved down your pants?"

He grinned at her and let her go.

"Farewell, ma chère. It's been a pleasure doing business with you," he departed before Rogue could think of anything more to say to him.

* * *

"Hank! Forge!" Rogue called, hurriedly walking into the medlab. "We got it!"

The two men looked up as Rogue came forward with the silver case in her hand, the rest of the X-Men right behind her. Rogue opened up the case and Hank gingerly lifted it, breathing a sigh of relief.

"We have it," Hank said appreciatively.

Everyone watched solemnly as Hank scanned the final piece of Emma into the computer. The computer informed Hank how exactly it was meant to fit with the other pieces. All so carefully, even reverently, Hank fitted the hand to Emma's body. Finally she was complete.

"Now all we need is for Jean to recover," said Scott.

* * *

**20 Years in the Future**

Professor Xavier was in Magneto and Rogue's living, sitting and chatting with them along with Pietro and his wife Crystal. On the floor, Charlie was playing with Pietro and Crystal's daughter Luna. Mid-sentence, the Professor found himself standing at a window, looking down at a number of teenagers training in the courtyard. He frowned at the sight, finding the display just a little too brutal for his tastes.

The Professor's eyes then landed on a young woman with pink hair and bones growing out of her body, his breath caught in his throat. A simple mental probe was all it took to confirm what his eyes saw: it was Marrow. He had feared she had dissolved into non-existence when the Sentinel-ruled timeline had been averted.

The mental probe confirmed something else as well; the Professor was in the Marauder compound. However, as he turned away from the window and looked at the luxurious apartment he was standing in, the Professor could only assume he was not a prisoner. Not unless the Marauders treated their prisoners exceptionally well, and based on all accounts, he found that highly unlikely.

Professor Xavier walked away from the window and started looking around the apartment. A family lived here, he decided, based on the children's toys on the floor. From a distance, the framed images on the mantelpiece looked like family photos—two parents, three children—but before he could inspect these any further the front door opened. The Professor looked up as Gambit walked in.

"Bonjour Professor," Gambit kicked the door shut behind him. "I hope you haven't been too bored."

"Not at all," the Professor replied, lamenting Gambit's natural psi shield which preventing him from just taking the answers to his burning questions. "You are done with, ahem, work for the day?"

"Pretty much," he replied, taking off his trench coat and draping it over the coat rack. "Benefits to being the boss, I can knock off whenever I want. I'll have to go out again in an hour or so to pick up the kids. Rogue probably won't be back until late and Sarah's class is being held back for extra training. Discipline and all that."

Professor Xavier gathered from the expression on Gambit's face that he wasn't at all happy about the situation.

"I'm sure it must be difficult," the Professor said cautiously, "to pretend to condone that which you abhor."

The Cajun sighed as he sat down on the lounge. "Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision in joining the Marauders," he admitted as the Professor sat down beside him. "I'm a thief, not a butcher. I should have, I don't know, joined the resistance officially. Gathered a team together and played Robin Hood or something."

Professor Xavier smiled faintly. "So, why did you join the Marauders?"

Gambit leaned over and started undoing his boots. "You know how the old saying goes; if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, then beat 'em."

The Professor chuckled.

"I've never been beneath pretending to join the enemy," Gambit went on. "I just didn't expect to still be part of them for almost twenty years."

The Professor nodded with understanding. "You've been trying to destroy them from the inside without revealing your true loyalties to the wrong people," he offered, "and you have no way of knowing if the good you have done has outweighed the bad."

Slipping off one of his boots, "Yeah."

"You know," Professor Xavier said after a pause, "I have found since being in this... Age of Apocalypse... that the timeline has changed quite a bit. Every time I send a message to the past, it changes here. For the most part the changes have been... smaller, more personal. But there was one future where the changes were far more widespread. This district that you are in charge of, would you say that is it one of the safest?"

"Possibly," Gambit replied, pulling off his second boot.

"In the timeline of which I speak, you died prematurely, and this district had become one of the most dangerous," the Professor informed him. "Perhaps that doesn't sound like much to you, but to me it suggests that yes, you have had a significant impact on this future. I cannot say whether the good you've done outweighs the bad, I can only say that you have done good."

Gambit was silent for a long moment. He pulled off his socks and finally lifted his head to look at the Professor, a grim smile was on his lips. "You're not just making that up to make me feel better, are you?"

"No, I am not," the Professor replied seriously. "And speaking of changes in the timelines, perhaps you might help me out here."

"How so?" Gambit inquired, leaning back in the lounge.

"How did I end up here?" he asked. "Every time the timeline changes I remember everything that happened in the prior timelines, but nothing that's happened in the timeline I'm currently existing in."

Gambit raised his eyebrows.

"Oookay," he ran his hand through his hair. "Well, Professor, you arrived here late last night. Rogue smuggled you in. You met our kids this morning; Olivier, Rebecca, and my foster daughter, Sarah. We asked you not to leave the apartment under any circumstances. You'll be pretty safe here as no one's allowed in the boss's quarters."

"You're not concerned about anyone seeing me through the window?"

"New technology in the last twenty years: you can see out, but you can't see in."

"That's not new," he frowned, "they're called two-way mirrors."

Gambit chuckled. "Dieu, I forgot about those. Actually when people on the outside look at our windows they just see a brick wall. No glass at all."

"Ahh," the Professor said with a nod. "Interesting."

Gambit grinned at him. "Anything else you want to know?"

The Professor was silent for a moment. "Sarah," he said slowly. "Does she have pink hair and grow additional bones?"

"Oui," Gambit replied.

"How did you come to adopt her?"

Gambit coughed uncomfortably. "It started with a massacre of her people, I'm afraid. She was the only one I could save."

"And she now spends her time training to be a Marauder?" the Professor asked blandly.

"She spends her time training to fight Marauders," Gambit replied quietly. "It was her decision. I would have preferred it if she was far away from here but... but she was, ahem, attached to me after I saved her and I ended up raising her. It was her decision to join the Marauders. I'll admit it made things easier for me as everyone expected me to ultimately recruit her. Saved me having to explain why I didn't. Still, easier isn't always better. I'm not really sure she's cut out for a life as a double agent. Time will tell, I suppose."

The Professor nodded slowly. "Well, either way, I'm glad she's alive and well. I met her once, in another timeline, one where Sentinels ruled the earth. I was concerned that the change in timeline meant that she no longer existed. Though, I won't imagine she's the exact same girl I once knew."

"Yeah..."

"You and Rogue are close?"

Gambit lifted up his left hand and pulled off his fingerless glove. A wedding band glittered in the light from his ring finger. "I'd say so," he said wryly.

"Ahh, fascinating," the Professor paused awkwardly, then asked: "Did she, ahh, have any boyfriends prior to dating you?"

Gambit shrugged. "Not that I know of, why?"

"Oh, no reason really. When I first entered this timeline, prior to passing any messages back to the past, she was... married to someone else," the Professor then went on quickly: "Tell me, the X-Men's fight with the Marauders over Emma's hand the day you agreed to sell it to the X-Men... what happened?"

"X-Men kicked butt," Gambit said with a shrug. "Who was she married to?"

"And you still sold the hand to Emma?"

"Oui," Gambit answered. "Who did Rogue marry?"

"Was Emma restored to life?"

"Oui. Jean needed some time to recover from the fight—concussion, if I recall correctly—but after that she was able to restore Emma just fine," Gambit eyed the Professor. "Seriously, who did Rogue marry?"

"Ahem," Charles said awkwardly, coughed, mumbled "Magneto" under his breath, coughed again, and finally asked, "What about the Legacy Virus?"

"The X-Men did attempt to warn everyone about the Legacy Virus but it was already too late, probably even before Emma was shattered. Fortunately, by the time the Legacy Cure mutated, the X-Men had plenty of the antidote whipped up and the death rate wasn't nearly as bad as had been theorised," Gambit tapped in fingers on his knee. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. _Who_ did Rogue marry?"

"Magneto," the Professor said quickly, "I understand that there was a follow up virus courtesy of Apocalypse? One that killed humans?"

"Magneto?" Gambit exclaimed. "Magsy? Buckethead? My Roguey married that old fart? Uhh, no offence."

The Professor raised his eyebrows. "None taken. I do not care to say anything more about the matter, only that the more the timeline changed, the more time Rogue spent with you in the past, the closer you two became in the future."

"But seriously," Gambit shook his head. "My competition is, or was, Magneto? I think I should be insulted."

"If it makes you feel any better, Erik had found a way around Rogue's mutation," the Professor offered. "I don't imagine that there were many who could do that for her."

"Oh yeah?" Gambit asked curiously. "Rogue has control over her mutation now."

The Professor's face lit up. "Well, that's certainly good news. She didn't then, you see."

Gambit considered this. "Okay, I feel less insulted now."

Professor Xavier chuckled lightly. "And now, back to this second virus?"

"No antidote for that one, I'm afraid," Gambit said gravely. "A vaccine was created, made using antibodies from the handful of humans who actually survived the first wave. It wiped out half the world's population."

"I see."

"I don't know when Sinister created it," Gambit went on quietly. "I believe it was created after the Legacy Cure mutated into the Virus, at Apocalypse's order. Supposed to be some kind of punishment for trying to kill their genetic superiors or something. To stop the virus, you're going to have to stop Apocalypse before he can give the order to spread it. Sinister wouldn't bother wasting his time creating a virus to wipe out humans unless Apocalypse tells him to. Sinister just isn't interested in ordinary humans."

The Professor nodded thoughtfully.

"The other advantage there is that Apocalypse was weaker back then," Gambit continued. "Should be a lot easier to take him and his Horsemen out without risking the whole 'you kill the Horseman, you become the Horseman' thing. Say, if the X-Men attack within a couple of days after the first fight with the Marauders, you'll have a distinct advantage. It took Sinister a couple of days to get his team out of MRD custody. There'll only be one or two Marauders to deal with. Well, and the Horsemen, Sinister himself, and Apocalypse, but you know what I mean."

"That I do," the Professor said. "I will have to get to Cerebro and contact the past to inform them."

"Rogue'll sneak you out tonight, as we discussed, but you don't remember because of the timeline change," Gambit said mischievously.

"Yes," the Professor replied. "Anything else I should tell them? Advice? Tactics?"

Gambit closed his eyes and thought for a long moment. "Apocalypse has been around for centuries and there's been plenty of attempts to kill him over that time. Obviously, no success so far, but he does have to hibernate every now and then. It's not something that's widely publicised, for obvious reasons. There's no particular schedule as far as I know, and I don't know where he has to go in order to hibernate, but I do know if you were to wear him down, force him to use up his life energy, he'll have no choice. If you want to destroy him for good, well, lets just say there's a reason Apocalypse is out to get level five telepath and telekinetic. I doubt Jean Grey will be recovered enough before the window of opportunity closes, though."

Gambit considered further, then snapped his fingers."You might be able to sabotage him from the inside, if you can snap Archangel out of his brainwashing."

"Oh?" the Professor asked. "And you know how to do that?"

"Something else that isn't publicised," Gambit said with a smirk. "Very early on, Storm attempted to create a sanctuary in Africa. Naturally, Apocalypse caught wind of this, saw it as a challenge to his authority, and sent his Horsemen to destroy it. Archangel killed Storm. The story is that when he realised what he did, he turned on the other Horsemen. It was too late by that point though; the sanctuary was destroyed. Archangel went after Apocalypse, and was... put down, for his trouble. Now I'm not suggesting that Storm should allow Archangel to kill her in the past, but if it's at all possible for one of the X-Men to fake their death and make Archangel think he's killed him, you may gain an ally mid-battle."

"I'm sure everyone will be pleased to know there may be a way of saving Warren," the Professor smiled. "I know I am."

"That's all I can think of for now," Gambit said with a shrug. "If anything else comes to mind before you leave, I'll let you know."

"Of course," the Professor said, paused, and then asked, "Did Sinister ever tell you who your father was?"

"I already know who my father was," Gambit replied. "His name was Jean-Luc LeBeau, he took me in off the streets when I was ten. He, my brother, Henri, his wife, Mercy, and the rest of my family all died because of that damn virus."

"I am sorry."

"I appreciate the sentiment, Professor, but I'd rather have my family back."

* * *

**AN: **The best part about Gambit's hiding place for Emma's hand was that after I finished writing the first draft of this chapter, I received my copy of X-23 #11 wherein Jubilee made a joke about Gambit keeping diamonds in his underwear!


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**Present Time:**

Logan stood on the stark white of the astral plane with Professor Xavier and listened while he gave him instructions on tackling Apocalypse.

"And one last thing," the Professor said. "I want you to consider offering Gambit a place with the X-Men."

Logan started at the Professor as if he'd grown a second head.

"You want _what?_" he exclaimed.

"I have had the opportunity to get to know Gambit in this time," Professor Xavier said patiently. "I believe that, given the chance, he would make an excellent X-Man."

"Chuck, this kid doesn't care about mutants or humans," Logan shook his head. "All he cares about is money."

"I assure that's not entirely true," Professor Xavier replied. "In any case, it is only a request, not an order."

"Good to know."

"After all, I would expect you to take some time to get to know him first, properly," was there a smile tugging at his lips. "May I suggest Rogue?"

Logan narrowed his eyes. "Why Rogue?"

"Is she not the person he's had the most contact with?" the Professor asked innocently.

Logan grunted in reply.

A part of Professor Xavier felt just a little bit bad for playing matchmaker but there was no guarantee that if the Age of Apocalypse was averted, Rogue and Gambit would even get together. Besides, although he wished his old friend all the happiness in the world, he really didn't like the idea of Magneto being Rogue's husband. It felt too much like his brother marrying his daughter.

* * *

After talking with Professor Xavier, Logan called the X-Men to the war room for a meeting. Due to Rogue's absorption of the three Marauders, she was able to identify the location of Sinister's current base; he'd relocated since they rescued Jean and Scott from his clutches some weeks previous. They discussed how to fake a death to break Warren of his brainwashing as well. Storm was the preferred target, based on the fact that it was her death that triggered the break in the Professor's future. However, none of them could think of a way to pull it off easily.

"I could do it," Rogue had said, only half joking. "I'd just need to absorb Storm, Mystique and Logan first."

For lack of a convenient shapeshifter, however, they explored other options.

"Me?" Bobby said.

"You were able to pull yourself back together last time," Logan said.

"Yeah but... I only ever did it once," Bobby said anxiously. "I'm not exactly in a hurry to do it again."

"There is another option," said Hank. "You could create an ice statue of yourself and entice Warren to attack that."

"I like that option waaaaay better," said Bobby, nodding vigorously.

They made plans to attack the next day. Towards the conclusion of the meeting, Storm eyed Logan speculatively.

"What else did the Professor say?" she asked.

"Uhh," Logan said awkwardly, and everyone looked at him curiously. "He suggested we should make Gambit an offer to join us."

"You have got to be kidding me."

"That sellout?"

"He's not seriously talking about the same Gambit that stole Magneto's helmet and sabotaged Genosha, the same guy that almost started the freaking war that he warned us about?"

"Chuck seems to think he'd made a good X-Man," Logan said. "And look, it was only a suggestion. He's not ordering us or anything."

"What could possibly make the Professor think that _Gambit_ would make a good X-Man?" Scott asked.

"I have no idea," Logan replied.

"The Professor would have met a Gambit twenty years older than he is now," Storm pointed out. "People can change and adversity has a way of revealing true colours. He may well be in a position to see something in him that we cannot."

* * *

Gambit was preparing to leave his precarious perch in one of the trees of the Xavier estate when bedroom lights started being turned on. He raised his eyebrow and checked the time on his watch; the X-Men were a bunch of early birds, weren't they? Knowing how late he'd been keeping Rogue up recently, he wondered if he'd thrown her sleep patterns out of whack.

Switching between naked eye and binoculars, he finally located Rogue's bedroom. Then he looked away and just paid attention to movement and lights going on and off. Just because he was spying on her didn't mean he was interested in playing 'peeping tom'. There was a difference.

About an hour later, perhaps less, Gambit saw the Blackbird take off and vanish into stealth mode. He waited and continued to watch the house, seeing no further movement. He considered the matter for a few minutes, then jumped from the tree. He circumvented the mansion security (it had been upgraded since his last visit, but still not enough to stop him), climbed up the wall to Rogue's bedroom window, then let himself in.

He wasn't stalking. And if it was stalking, Rogue started it by stalking him first.

Gambit looked around the woman's room, taking everything in. It was reasonably neat, although there were piles of dirty clothes on the floor and the bed was unmade. Gambit smirked at the sight of a plump teddy bear by her pillow.

He opened the drawers in her bedside table, only to find nothing particularly interesting. If he was hoping for a diary or some hint of her real name, he was disappointed. He glanced under her bed, but it was unnaturally tidy under there.

There was a bookcase along one wall, half full of books. He glanced over the titles, lots of classics and a number of what looked to be adventure stories.

Gambit opened up Rogue's wardrobe and found it full of clothes and shoes. There weren't nearly as many shoes as he had seen in a woman's bedroom before, but she sure did have a lot of boots. He closed the wardrobe and moved onto her chest of drawers, a jewellery box sitting on top with a few photos. The images were mostly of the X-Men which led Gambit to wondering about Rogue's natural family. He assumed she was probably one of the unfortunate mutants who got disowned or something. Perhaps that's why he had such a hard time finding out her real name.

After figuring correctly that the first drawer was probably underwear, he opened the second which was full of gloves, a ridiculously huge variety of gloves. Gambit was pretty sure he hadn't seen quite that many kinds of gloves, of all different lengths, colours, materials, and designs, in his life.

The third and fourth drawers in the chest were mostly just shirts and pants. The fifth drawer, however, was full of books. This confused Gambit momentarily since she had a perfectly good bookcase that wasn't even full. Why would Rogue keep books in a drawer? He pulled out one of the books, glanced at the cover, and a smirk appeared on his face as he realised the answer: Rogue didn't want anyone to know she read bodice-rippers.

Gambit chuckled to himself as he put the book back and closed the drawer. One more glance around her bedroom to make sure he hadn't left anything out of place and then he was gone.

* * *

While Gambit was on his way back to his hotel after his 'long night', the X-Men were busy getting their butts handed to them by the Horsemen. They had barely walked through the door of Sinister's base when Archangel and his fellow Horsemen of Famine, Pestilence and War jumped them.

Logan reluctantly made the call to retreat when Scott and Kitty were both infected with some sort of disease by Pestilence, Kurt was felled with hunger pangs by the skeletal Famine, and everyone else except himself were sporting injuries from War and Death. Bobby and Storm used ice and wind to stall the pursuit as Logan and Rogue gathered their sick and hungry team mates. Fortunately, the Horsemen didn't follow them back to the mansion.

Once at the mansion, Hank had the arduous task of tending injuries. Scott and Kitty were isolated from the others, just in case, but preliminary tests indicated to him that they should be okay. Kurt recovered after a good meal. The three also had minor injuries to deal with. Bobby was able to use his newly found ability to pull himself back together to deal with his injuries as all of them had occurred while he was in ice form. Logan lent Rogue his healing factor. Storm had sprained her ankle after a bad fall.

"What it comes down to," Storm said as Hank finished wrapping up her ankle, "is that we need to fight this battle with our heads, rather than our fists."

* * *

**6 Years in the Future:**

"What is comes down to," Rogue said, addressing the select group of resistance fighters, "is that we need to fight this battle with our heads, rather than our fists. It's not the Horsemen we need to defeat, it's Apocalypse we need to get to."

"But we can't get to Apocalypse unless we kill the Horsemen first," Pietro said seriously and those around him nodded their heads in agreement.

* * *

**Present Time:**

"It is not the Horsemen we need to defeat," Storm went on. "Apocalypse is the true target."

"But the Horsemen are obviously guarding him," said Bobby. "We have to get past them somehow."

Rogue gestured to the room where Scott and Kitty were being kept in quarantine. "We all survived today. We may not be so fortunate next time. Storm's right. We need to find a way of distracting the Horsemen and getting past their guard."

* * *

**6 Years in the Future:**

"That's what Apocalypse wants us to think, Sam," Rogue replied. "We keep sending our best against his champions, and whenever we defeat one, his Horseman gets an upgrade. It's a self-defeating cycle and we will play that game no more."

"Right," said Forge. "What we really need is a way to distract the Horsemen, so we can slip into the Citadel unnoticed."

"Yeah?" said Jubilee. "How do you propose we do that? Perform Shakespeare?"

* * *

**Present Time:**

"Okay, so," Bobby frowned, "how are we going to distract the Horsemen, and more importantly, how do we keep them distracted while we defeat Apocalypse? However it is we're planning on defeating Apocalypse that is."

"The Professor said we need to drain Apocalypse of his life energy right?" Forge gestured to Rogue. "We have our very own life absorber right here."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Rogue replied with a wince. "I mean, the Professor also said that he regenerates life energy by hibernating. I steal life force, yes, but how do we know Apocalypse can't use me as an energy drink or something?"

"Even if he can't," Logan said, "we also risk having to fight Rogue in his place."

"Same reason I'm not absorbing any of the Horsemen," Rogue said. "No telling what all that brainwashing might do to me."

"Okay then, how else do you use up life energy anyway?" Bobby asked.

"One would assume by dying," Hank said. "I know that is not an entirely helpful statement, particularly given the amount of natural resilience to and recuperation of injury there is in this company."

"Healing factor ain't exactly instantaneous, Hank," said Logan.

Bobby snapped his fingers.

"Neither is reforming," Bobby said, looking at the group with bright eyes. "What if I freeze him? And I mean freeze him, as in the water in his body, not just encase him in an ice block. Logan can chop him up into bits. If he's even capable of surviving that, it'll take him awhile to reform and I bet it'll use up a stack of life energy."

* * *

**6 Years in the Future:**

"You're not actually all that far off, Jubilee," Rogue said smugly. "We're going to give the Horsemen a reason to let us walk right in. Magneto?"

Magneto lifted the metal cover up off the table to reveal a statuette of Apocalypse.

* * *

**Present Time:**

"Okay, you guys keep the Horsemen distracted while Bobby and I go after Apocalypse," said Logan.

"No," said Storm. "Not you, Logan."

"Got someone else in mind for the slicing and dicing?" Logan asked with a quirk of his eyebrow.

"As a matter of fact, I do," said Storm. "We need someone who can get themselves and Bobby past the Horsemen without being noticed, who can aid in the, ahem, 'slicing and dicing' of Apocalypse, and preferably someone who may know the layout of Sinister's base well."

Storm looked towards Rogue.

"Me?" Rogue said before Storm could say a word. "Umm, I'm not really sure how well I could do any of that. And in any case, the Marauders' memories have faded; I don't know the layout of Sinister's base."

"Not you," Storm with a smile, "but I was thinking you might be the ideal person to call Gambit."

* * *

**6 Years in the Future:**

"Everyone has an Achilles Heel," said Magneto, "and in Apocalypse's case, this growing need to be worshipped as a god is his. We shall exploit that. And keeping to the same vein of Greek Myths, tell me, how many of you are familiar with the story of the Trojan Horse?"

* * *

**20 Years in the Future:**

Professor Xavier looked up at the five storey tall statue of Apocalypse. With him was a large crowd of resistance fighters, all preparing to board. The Professor didn't recognise most of the people around him but there were a handful of familiar faces.

It had been a joy the night before to be reunited with so many of his X-Men. Kitty Pryde had noticeably matured and not simply because she had been a teenager when he last saw her. She and Piotr had married.

Bobby had also changed. He was no longer the wise-cracking jokester the Professor remembered. There were occasionally glimpses of that old sense of humour but it was clear the war had hardened him. He had apparently become rather proficient at manipulating his ice form.

Kurt had reunited and teamed up with his biological mother, Mystique. The pair regularly performed covert missions for the resistance, often smuggling goods and refugees around the world. Like Bobby, Kurt seemed to have lost some of his playfulness over the years.

The Professor was sorry to learn that Forge was still dead; the attack on the theatre troop had been unavoidable, it seemed. Hank and Storm were still dead. Scott was still under Sinister's control. The last anyone had heard of Jean, she was in Sinister's breeding pens. He was, however, pleased to hear that Emma was alive. She was in Europe, however, and was unable to make it back in time for their final strike against Apocalypse.

About an hour after the resistance fighters finished loading up in the statue, Gambit and three or four squads of Marauders arrived at the factory. Rogue and Magneto were out the front of the factory waiting for them and Gambit greeted his wife with a kiss.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"As we'll ever be," Magneto replied, glancing over the number of Marauders with some apprehension. He knew why it was necessary to have so many who weren't necessarily aligned with Gambit and the resistance, but he didn't like it.

Magneto lifted his hands and the large factory roller door lifted. Gambit caught his breath at the sight of the enormous effigy; he hadn't actually seen it yet. Everyone involved had to shade their eyes as Magneto floated the statue out of the factory, the sun reflecting brightly off it.

It was quite a long procession down to the main square where the Citadel was stationed, many coming out of their houses to watch. The main square itself, however, was noticeably free of civilians. None of them were really surprised by this, not when all four Horsemen were waiting there, mounted on their robotic steeds. This would be the moment of truth: The Horsemen of War and Famine, Gazer and Sunfire, would have no reason to be concerned. However, Logan and Lorna, the Horsemen of Death and Pestilence, both had the capacity to notice the additional passengers. Hopefully Lorna wouldn't think anything much of anything she sensed inside the statue, and the presence of so many Marauders would confuse Logan's senses.

The Four Horsemen watched as the procession drew near. They all stopped at the platform and before any words could be said, a large portal opened.

"Come, my children, come," said the voice of Apocalypse and Rogue mentally winced at the presumed familiarity.

Magneto, Rogue, Gambit and one squad of his most loyal and like-minded Marauders stepped through the portal with the statue close behind. They appeared in Apocalypse's throne room, the man himself sitting high on his elaborate throne. The Horsemen followed, the portal closing behind.

Apocalypse opened his mouth to speak, but Logan spoke first:

"It's a trap," he said, his nose picking up the extra scents from the statue.

That was all the signal Magneto needed to rip the statue apart. The resistance fighters burst out at the same time Magneto wrapped up the Horsemen in metal. It was only a temporary setback for the Horsemen, but that was all it needed to be. They knew they wouldn't be able to destroy the Horsemen until after they destroyed Apocalypse, and already striding towards the would-be god was their not-so-secret weapon: Nate Grey.

"Survival of the fittest, eh, Apocalypse?" said Nate. "Let's see who's fittest then."

If the rest of the group, resistance fighter, disgruntled Marauder, and Horseman alike, weren't so busy fighting each other, they wouldn't have been overly impressed by the epic battle that raged between Nate Grey and Apocalypse. It wasn't very flashy. In fact, the average bystander—had there been any at the time—would have seen two men with their hands thrust out towards each other, glaring. Had they been in a cartoon or a movie, there undoubtedly would have been some special effect depicting the molecular and energy manipulation battle between them as they attempted to destroy each other on the atomic level.

Magneto and his team faced off against Lorna. It had been a long time since Magneto had last seen his daughter and even longer since he had lost her to Apocalypse. It pained him to see her like this but there was little he could do except fight to contain her. He'd never be able to save her, not until Apocalypse was dead, and Lorna would do everything within her power to prevent that.

While another team kept Gazer busy, Gambit and his squad of Marauders targeted Sunfire. The group of predominately ranged fighters were careful to keep the Horseman of Famine from touching them. The touch of starvation had grown dramatically worse over the years, and it was unusual, but not unheard of for someone to die of starvation on the spot.

Rogue attacked Logan, her own team of hard hitters backing her up. She kept her claws sheathed; they'd only break if they penetrated Logan's skin and collided with his adamantium skeleton. Rogue had no interest in wasting her healing factor on regenerating bones, especially when the lack of adamantium in her body meant that her healing factor was actually faster than his.

Then the shockwave hit, knocking down every single person in the room. Silence fell for some time, then finally everyone started to come to. Nate Grey was sprawled on the floor in front of the throne, his body in some strange state of flux. Apocalypse was nowhere to be seen.

"Mmm... Father?"

Magneto looked up, his anxious eyes meeting Lorna's dazed and confused ones.

"Lorna?" he said hopefully.

"What happened?" she asked, rubbing her head.

"Lorna," was all he could say before wrapping her up tenderly in his arms. This surprised Lorna as she wasn't really used to her father being the hugging type.

"Nate?" Gambit said, finding the strength to walk over to the young man. "You alright there, mon ami?"

_"Apocalypse is gone," _Nate's voice said inside their heads. _"I will need some time to recover. Please, leave me. There is nothing any of you can do."_

Gambit nodded. "Okay then. We'll make sure no one bothers you."

Nate's body didn't move but everyone felt that he had acknowledged Gambit's words all the same.

"That you, Rogue?" said Logan looking around. "How'd we get here? And why am I wearing this ridiculous outfit?"

He tugged at the red cloak about his shoulders. Rogue grinned at him and held out her hand.

"Welcome back from the dead, Wolverine," she said coyly. "Come on, people. Let's go home, tend our wounded and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow, the real fun begins."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**Present Time:**

There was no shortage of fuss made at the very suggestion of bringing Gambit in.

"He can't be trusted."

"This is a job for X-Men!"

"How can we possibly know that he won't sell us out to Sinister for Brownie points?"

"Silence!" Storm commanded, frowning at them. "Really, I am certain that if the Professor could hear you right now he would be most disappointed in you. He asked us to consider offering a position to Gambit and the moment we have an opportunity to do so, you immediately dismiss the idea. Gambit is hardly the first person with a shady past who has been invited to join the X-Men before."

"Honestly? I don't think we'll have much a problem with Gambit turning us into Sinister," Rogue said seriously. "I get the impression that he really doesn't like dealing with him."

"Which only means that if the price is right, he'll work for anyone," said Logan. "Sinister. Senator Kelly. Money talks."

"Including us," said Storm.

"Storm, we haven't even finished paying off Emma's hand yet," Logan said as they heard the door bell ring. "I have no interest in getting any further into Gumbo's debt. Hell, I didn't even want to have to pay him anything at all."

"Regardless, we're a little short on time here," Storm said. "We know it's only a small matter of time before Sinister retrieves his Marauders. If we do not act now, we shall have to fight them as well. We're already shorthanded because of this morning."

Logan growled.

"I guess I'll get that," Forge said when no one else volunteered to answer the door.

"We won't be completely shorthanded," Logan turned to Rogue. "I want you to absorb everyone before we get into the next fight. Including Scott and Kitty, absorb me right after them in case that sickness is... absorbable."

Rogue nodded slowly.

"Is that really necessary?" asked Bobby.

"We're going to need firepower when we go up against the Horsemen again and Rogue has the ability to provide an army's worth," Logan said. "Which is good, because we're going to be short Scott and Kitty tomorrow, and you as well, since you'll be sneaking inside with Gambit."

Logan looked at Storm who smiled at him.

"Rogue," Storm said, still looking at Logan. "Would you mind calling Gambit and find out if he's interested. Tell him about the virus we're trying to stop."

Rogue nodded and pulled out her phone not needing to ask why her, she knew she was the one who had managed to establish a rapport with him. She dialled and waited for him to pick up.

"Gambit," he said.

"Hi, it's Rogue," she said, wondering why she felt nervous about this all of a sudden.

"Hi Roguey," he replied smoothly. "And to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"We were wondering if you were interested in doing a job for us."

There was a pause and then a curious "Oh?"

"Yeah, we're trying to stop a virus that's going to wipe out half the human population," Rogue frowned. "You're familiar with Sinister; do you know of Apocalypse?"

"I think I've heard the name in passing," Gambit replied.

"Well, as far as we know, he's at Sinister's current lab. With the Marauders all stuck in MRD custody the lab is only being guarded by the Horsemen... do you know who the Horsemen are?"

"Another term I've heard in passing," Gambit considered, then snapped his fingers. "Ahh... actually, I believe I do know who you're talking about. Last time I was at the lab, Sinister had been working on... well I was going to say some freaky new experiment, but they're all freaky new experiments."

Rogue laughed, triggering odd looks from her friends.

"Angel's one of them, isn't he?" Gambit asked.

"Yeah, he's one of them," Rogue replied quietly. "Anyway, we would like you to sneak one of us into the lab while the rest of us keep the Horsemen busy. We need you to get to Apocalypse, and ahh... help the other X-Man break him into little pieces. The guy has been around for centuries, apparently. If we're lucky it'll kill him, but most likely it'll just slow him down."

"I thought the X-Men didn't kill," Gambit said loftily.

"That would be our preference, normally," Rogue said solemnly. "But like I said, we're trying to stop three billion humans from being killed by a virus he's going to order to be spread when the Legacy Cure mutates into the Legacy Virus and threatens to wipe out mutants. The Legacy Virus we have a cure for, but not the second one."

There was a long silence and the med lab doors opened again as Forge came back in with a bouquet of flowers in his hands. Forge got a lot of curious looks as he opened his mouth to speak, but then he noticed Rogue was on the phone and waited.

"You're sure about that, chère?" Gambit asked.

"I've got three words for you, sugah: horse race winners."

There was another long silence while Gambit inevitably thought of his adopted, human family, and measured that up against how certain Rogue seemed.

"Well, normally assassination isn't my thing," Gambit said professionally. "I'm a thief, after all. But for you, ma chère, and in the light of the seriousness of the situation, I suppose I can make an exception. Who did you want me to sneak in, and when did you want to act? And, of course, there is the matter of my fee..."

"We want you to sneak in Iceman. The plan is to have him freeze Apocalypse and for you to take care of the breaking apart aspect," Rogue replied, matching his tone. "We'd like to act tomorrow, before the Marauders return from MRD custody. And what payment did you want?"

Logan growled. Rogue ignored him. Gambit paused, then named his price. He felt a little awkward about it knowing that if Rogue was telling the truth, his family's lives were at stake. However, Gambit didn't feel like he could afford to just start giving out freebies. That sort of thing could ruin his reputation as a thief and the Guild would not be happy with him if they found out, to put it mildly. Rogue agreed to the price straight away.

"What, no haggling?" Gambit asked.

"Half the world's population is at risk here, Gambit," Rogue said firmly. "I hardly think it's worth quibbling over a few lousy bucks."

Gambit grunted.

"Look," he said after a moment. "Since you are in a rush to make sure you get in before the Marauders get back, what do you think about going tonight? It'll be easier to sneak in myself and Iceman in while it's still dark. And the late hour may even give the rest of you an advantage against the Horsemen too. That is, I'm assuming they get tired just like everyone else."

"What time were you thinking?"

"Three am."

Rogue looked at the rest of the team. "What do you guys think about going at three am tonight?"

The X-Men looked at each other.

"The Cajun wants the cover of darkness, eh?" Logan said. "Alright. He meets us here and we go together in the Blackbird."

"Sure," she told the thief, "You meet us here and we go together."

"Alright. I know Sinister's current lab well enough to get us in without having to do any recon first," Gambit said. "I'll see you at three."

They hung up not long after that. Rogue reiterated the part of the conversation the others wouldn't have heard.

"Guess we'd better go to bed and rest up," said Bobby when she finished.

"Yeah," Rogue said.

"Right," Forge held the flowers towards Rogue. "These are for you."

Rogue blinked and gave Forge an odd look. "Me?"

"Uh huh," Forge said. "Just got delivered."

Rogue stared at the flowers as she awkwardly accepted them from Forge's hands. "Who in the world would send me flowers?"

Forge shrugged. "No idea. There isn't even a card."

"Aww Rogue has a secret admirer," Bobby was grinning at her.

Rogue snorted contemptuously, although in truth she was rather hopeful about the idea. "Knowing my luck, it's probably just some jerk wanting to mess with my head. Or it's an apology for something and they just lost the card."

* * *

**20 Years in the Future:**

Rogue found Professor Xavier looking out through the window with a pensive expression on his face. She wandered over and leaned against the wall beside him.

"Thinking deep thoughts?" she asked.

Professor Xavier turned to look at Rogue.

"Yes," he said slowly. "I believe I am."

Rogue tilted her head to the side in silent query.

"We just won an important victory," he said, looking out the window again.

"Yeah, we did," Rogue sighed. "It's not over yet, though. The Marauders might not have the backing of the Horsemen and Apocalypse any more but they still have power. Worse, they've trained the average citizen to fear them. It's going to take a long time before we'll ever be truly free of Apocalypse's legacy, Maybe we never will be."

"But it is a beginning and you have freed this district," the Professor said. "Others will follow."

"That's the plan."

There was silence for a moment.

"Yet, if I succeed in changing the past," the Professor said quietly, "and prevent that second virus from seeing the light of day, none of this will happen. This victory, this battle you had been planning for fourteen years, will never happen."

"I know."

"Doesn't that bother you? All that hard work..."

"I would like to think that no matter what the future holds—or the past—that I would still do my best to make this world a better place for everyone," Rogue said firmly. "Having second thoughts about communicating with the past?"

"In a way," the Professor replied. "I can't just stand by and do nothing when something is wrong, but at the same time, I wonder if I'm doing the right thing."

"If you could go back in time and kill Hitler as a baby, would you do it?" Rogue suggested.

"Something like that. Only thing is, Rogue, I _know_ I have killed children, or at least prevented them from coming into existence," the Professor replied gravely. "Others have taken their places, but still, I wonder..."

Rogue let out a long, slow breath.

"I honestly don't know what to tell you, Professor," she said. "I guess that's why the Hitler question is such a loaded one. Some people would kill the baby without hesitation, I'm sure. To them it's worth it to save the millions of people who died in concentration camps. Of course, one does have to wonder, if Hitler had died as a baby, what would have happened instead? Can anyone say with any certainty that the person who had led Germany in his place would have been any better? Could we have avoided World War Two? Or was it inevitable?"

"Could a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil cause a tornado in Texas?" the Professor answered.

"Yeah, that," Rogue said with a grin. "I guess that's the thing about having power, knowing when to use it and when not to."

The Professor watched as Rogue extended her bone claws in one hand.

"I wonder if I should have all the time," she said softly.

* * *

**Present Time:**

Gambit gathered from the not-exactly-warm reception he got when he arrived at the mansion that not everyone was all that happy about him being hired for this job. Either that, or they just hated the early morning. There was minimal talk as they loaded up on the Blackbird, although certain people weren't below making comments under their breath about sticky fingers. Gambit ignored them.

"An alarm will go off as soon as you enter," Gambit told them. "I plan for myself and Iceman to be on the other side of the compound before that happens."

"Just let us know when you're in position and we'll begin the distraction," Storm said.

Gambit glanced across at Rogue as the Blackbird took off. In addition to her X-Men uniform she was also wearing one of Cyclops' visors.

"Nice shades Roguey," he asked. "Don't really suit you though."

"I absorbed enough of Jean, Cyke and Shadowcat to retain their powers for an hour or two," Rogue replied, speaking louder than normal. "I plan to make the most of their powers in that time, so try not to take too long getting into position, Swamp Rat."

Gambit saluted. "Ma'am, yes Ma'am."

"And here we were thinking you were incapable of taking orders," Logan said blandly.

"I just love a woman in uniform," Gambit joked.

Rogue lifted her hand to cover her laugh. Gambit caught it anyway and grinned at her. Rogue saw his look and pulled her hand down quickly but she couldn't hide her smile.

"Even policewomen?" Bobby asked mischievously.

"Oui," Gambit replied.

They landed before too long. While the rest of the X-Men waited, Gambit took Bobby around to the other side of the compound. Gambit couldn't be certain of Apocalypse's exact location but Sinister's lab wasn't that big and there were only so many places he could possibly be. When Gambit and Bobby got to the back entrance, Gambit disabled the alarm and Bobby signalled to the others to move in.

With the alarm on that particular door disabled, Gambit and Bobby walked in. Gambit winced as they walked down the stairs; every step Bobby took seemed to echo. Clearly stealth training wasn't a priority amongst the X-Men. At the bottom of the stairs was a long hallway, and Gambit signalled for Bobby to stay where he was.

Gambit moved quietly down the hall and checked the nearby rooms as the alarm sounded on the other side of the compound, indicating the X-Men had begun their attack. He gestured to Bobby to catch up with him, taking advantage of the noise. They were in the Marauder's barracks, separate from where Gambit knew the Horsemen had been staying.

Abruptly, a door flew open and Riptide stepped out still in his pajamas. A few well-placed hits with his staff was all Gambit needed to disable the sleepy mutant and put him back to bed. Bobby gave him a couple of thumbs up, Gambit just smirked at him and they continued on their way.

They made it through the Marauder barracks to a T-intersection. Gambit paused and considered, then chose the left hall. Bobby started to talk but Gambit glared at him and put his hand to his mouth. Bobby got the hint. There were a couple more turns, they passed by a lot of doors, but it wasn't until they got to the end that Gambit started checking rooms again.

Finally, they found Apocalypse. He was in his own personal lab, which, in Gambit's opinion, looked like a cross between "futuristic" and "medieval torture chamber". Bobby caught Gambit's look and gave him a weak smile. Gambit nodded and carefully opened the door. Bobby stretched his arms out towards Apocalypse and started to freeze him over as quickly as he could.

"Insects!" Apocalypse's voice boomed, and abruptly he appeared behind them. "You dare to challenge me?"

A swipe of his over-sized hand and Bobby and Gambit were flung against the wall.

* * *

At the front entrance of the compound, the X-Men battled the Horsemen. Or, more accurately, Rogue battled the Horsemen. Sure, at first Storm, Logan, Forge, and Kurt were more than happy to pull their weight. Storm was quite prepared to tackle Archangel in the skies. Logan had been planning on tackling War, the only land-based Horseman whose physical touch wouldn't incapacitate. Forge, whose robotic arm could transform into a gun, had been looking forward to finally using it. Kurt thought he was going to end up teleporting the others out of danger all the time as hand to hand combat with Famine and Pestilence had proven to be a bad idea.

None of them had expected quite how easily Rogue could use their powers in combination to stay the enemy. Even Logan, who had been the one to say she had the capacity to have the firepower of an army, had been surprised by the results. She had absorbed Bobby just before he left with Gambit and then absorbed everyone else while they waited for the signal. Once she'd gotten her cue, she sprung into action.

"This wasn't exactly what I had in mind," Logan said, looking up at a furious, yet contained tornado, which held all four Horsemen and their three robotic flying horses captive.

A large chunk of hail hit the ground, joining the numerous others that periodically fell from the sky.

"I had no idea that you could create such large pieces of hail, Storm," Kurt said, eyeing the icey balls.

"I could," Storm said, her eyes on the tornado as red beams periodically flashed. "But these conditions aren't right for it. I suspect that Rogue may be using Bobby's powers to enhance their size."

"So, uhh," Forge said. "If Rogue can handle those guys all by herself, shouldn't we be looking for Bobby and Gambit and see if they need a hand?"

"I'd rather not leave Rogue without backup," Logan said.

"I think Rogue is her own backup," Forge replied.

"Sooner or later, our powers will wear off," said Storm, explaining. "Still, I do not feel right standing here... watching. Perhaps we _should_ attempt to catch up with Bobby and Gambit."

Logan paused, then nodded. "Alright, Nightcrawler, Forge, you stay here. Storm, you're with me."

* * *

It quickly became evident to Gambit and Bobby that their plan had a pretty big flaw it in, namely, people who call themselves "Apocalypse" are either too big for their boots, or major trouble.

Apocalypse was definitely major trouble. If it weren't for Bobby's presence, Gambit might have suspected he'd been set up. Apocalypse was constantly avoiding Gambit's charged cards, either by shape shifting holes in his body or by teleporting. Bobby wasn't having much luck freezing his body either.

Gambit made another pass around the room, dodging Apocalypse's energy blasts in the process. He and Bobby almost collided and Gambit took advantage of the moment to hiss "freeze the room instead" at him.

At first Bobby had no idea what Gambit meant by that, but since he was having little luck freezing Apocalypse directly, he figured why not? He spread his arms out either side of his body and concentrated on freezing the walls, floor and ceiling.

Gambit continued on his way around the room. He shut the door and Bobby iced that over as well. Gambit was already feeling the chill and he hoped that the meagre warmth his powers generated would be enough to keep him from freezing.

As he advised Bobby, so too did Gambit change his tactics. Direct assault wasn't working, therefore the alternative was indirect attacks. Gambit started blowing up the equipment.

The indiscriminate destruction of his work angered Apocalypse and he continued to focus his attacks on the "foolish insect" Gambit. Gambit was not particularly phased by being referred to as a foolish insect; he'd been called worse.

The room got colder and colder and Bobby ran into a problem: he was running out of water. There was only so much moisture in the air that he could freeze over. Eventually the only water left was that in Gambit and Apocalypse's bodies. With no other options left, Bobby tried freezing Apocalypse again. Apocalypse took exception to this and blasted Bobby, who failed to dodge the blast in time, and once again had his ice form broken into pieces.

At first Bobby was irritated and wanted to put himself back together again, but then he stopped as a whole other idea came to him. Slowly, he manipulated his body and the icey world around him. He drew the water into him as he crawled along the floor—still in pieces—towards Apocalypse.

Gambit noticed Bobby's movement out of the corner of his eye but continued distracting Apocalypse. He was careful not to move to part of the room where he could see Bobby moving, not wanting to tip Apocalypse off.

Once he reached Apocalypse's side—not an easy task, given his tendency to teleport—Bobby began shifting all the extra water he'd collected from around the room into blocks around Apocalypse. He lifted himself up and started drawing more and more of the ice towards them. At first Apocalypse didn't seem to notice how much colder it had gotten in his immediate area. By the time he did, it was much too late. Bobby had gotten his icey chill past Apocalypse's armour and had started freezing over the water in his body. It was a definite struggle as Apocalypse used his molecular control over his body to counter Bobby's effort.

Unfortunately for Apocalypse, Bobby had the forethought to concentrate his attack on Apocalypse's head, specifically his brain. Bobby thought that if he could slow things down in there and make it harder for Apocalypse to think, he may just stand a chance. It took some time, and a good deal of concentration, but Bobby sensed his plan was working as Apocalypse fought him less and less.

Gambit realised what was happening soon enough. He opened up the door again, and then pressed his fingers against Apocalypse's armour through gaps in the ice. Concentrating, he poured as much kinetic energy into Apocalypse's armour as he could. Normally killing wasn't his thing, but if the X-Men were right about the virus then the chances were half his family would die. He wouldn't stand for that.

"This is gonna be big," Gambit said to Bobby in warning, trying to catch his eye.

* * *

As Logan and Storm made their way through the halls, they were confronted with many, many copies of Multiple Man. Their progress was greatly impeded as they attempted to make their way through the throng. Storm sent a strong wind through the hall, pressing all the duplicates to the walls. Logan grabbed one.

"Where's Apocalypse?" Logan demanded.

"You think I'm going to tell you?" the duplicate replied. "Don't make me laugh!"

The duplicate then proceeded to start laughing hysterically. Logan let him go.

"I'll tell you where he is," said another duplicate next to him. "Just... please don't kill me! I don't want to die."

Logan grabbed him and pushed him in front. "Get moving."

"This way!" said the duplicate, quickly making his way down the hall to the part of the lab where Apocalypse was staying. "You won't kill me, right? And don't let him kill me either."

Logan growled, stifling the duplicate's further pleas for his life. As they walked, Storm kept the other duplicates away. It took a considerable amount of effort to make sure the wind imposed on the duplicates but did not hinder herself or Logan.

* * *

It all happened at once.

Logan and Storm arrived at Apocalypse's door (the duplicate ran away) and when they looked in they could see Apocalypse shining brightly with a magenta light. Gambit let go of Apocalypse and threw himself towards the door. Bobby pulled himself as far away from Apocalypse as he could. Logan, realising an explosion was coming, instinctually put himself between Apocalypse and Storm. And Storm, also realising that the magenta glow meant that Gambit was blowing something up, wrapped a tight whirlwind around Apocalypse and pushed him up to the ceiling.

BOOOOOoooooooooooMMMMmmmm!

Like a rocket, Apocalypse was pushed through the ceiling as he exploded and created a huge skylight for a room that was predominantly underground. Storm's whirlwind collected much of the resulting debris, enabling Gambit and Bobby to get to safety. Then she let her winds go, the debris fell to the ground and there was silence. Not even a duplicate in sight.

"Bobby?" Storm said, kneeling down beside his half-formed body.

"I'll be... okay," Bobby replied tiredly.

Storm smiled sympathetically at him as pieces of ice slid along the floor to be reunited with his body.

Gambit glanced back into what used to be a room and then up at Logan from where he sat on the floor. The Cajun had poured pretty much all the charge he had into Apocalypse's armour and was feeling it. There was no way he was going to stand up unless he was positive his legs would hold him.

"You sure that ain't gonna kill him?" Gambit asked.

"Apparently slowing him down's the best we can hope for," Logan replied.

"So this virus..." Gambit trailed off awkwardly, not really sure how to phrase his question.

"We'll find out soon enough."

Gambit narrowed his eyes. "You do have a precog, don't you?"

"Sorry Gumbo, only X-Men can know."

Gambit snorted derisively.

Conversation dwindled while they waited for Bobby to finish reforming. Then Logan's communicator buzzed, Kurt wanted to check that everything was alright.

"Where is he?" a familiar voice bellowed down the hall.

All heads turned back the way they came to the winged figure that came running towards them. Logan immediately stood on guard, his claws extended.

"I'll kill him for what he did to me!" Archangel declared as he barrelled towards them, eyes blazing. "Where is he?"

"We've dealt with Apocalypse," Logan replied languidly. "Don't know where Sinister is. Don't care, either."

"Raagh!"

"Don't know what you're so upset about," Logan went on. "You did this to yourself."

"I did not!"

"You _knew _what Sinister did to mutants," Logan said, sheathing his claws so he could poke Archangel in the chest with his finger. "And you still went to him. I don't know why you're so shocked."

"My wings were—" Archangel began insistently.

"I know what happened to your damn wings," Logan replied. "You lost your wings, and then you lost your head."

"No, no you've got no right. You don't understand at all," Archangel insisted, then noticed Gambit on the floor. "You get it, right? You tell him!"

"Don't know what you're talking about," Gambit drawled.

"The Marauders told me that Sinister operated on you," Archangel said, "because of your powers."

"Funny," Gambit replied, having no intention of confirming anything of the sort. "The X-Men told me you were smart. Guess you can't believe everything you hear."

Gambit pulled himself up off the floor as Bobby finally took on his human form again.

"I know it's the truth—" Archangel insisted, pointing at Gambit.

"See if you were smart," Gambit went on blithely, "you would have asked Sinister his price for, ahem, restoring your wings."

"Money was no object!"

"But Sinister didn't want your money. He wanted your soul."

* * *

Finally Logan (carrying Bobby), Storm, and Gambit returned to Forge, Kurt, and Rogue. Logan noticed the three robotic horses lying on the ground along with a single skeleton.

"Where'd the Horsemen go?" Logan asked.

"War and Pestilence ran off," Kurt replied. "I think Famine is dead... it's hard to say, being a skeleton and all."

Logan grunted, then looked at Rogue who had a distracted tint to her features.

"You okay, kid?" he asked.

Rogue blinked, stared hard at him, then shook her head slightly. "I'm sorry Logan, did you say something?" she shouted.

"Yeah, I asked if you were okay," Logan replied, his enhanced hearing wincing at Rogue's volume.

"Sorry, I can't hear you," Rogue said, still shouting. "There are too many voices in my head right now."

"Uh huh," Logan glanced at the group. "Now I know why we don't do this that often."

"What?" Rogue bellowed.

Logan grunted and adjusted his hold on Bobby. "Someone get her inside... without any more shouting."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**20 Years in the Future:**

Professor Xavier looked around at the brightly decorated ballroom and smiled at the banner that was strung across the far wall: It's About Time You Woke Up.

Although it hadn't been confirmed as such, Professor Xavier was confident that the Age of Apocalypse had been averted. He had woken up at the Xavier Institute and found it full of mutants of all ages. Not all of his former students were there to teach and train but those who had moved elsewhere had returned for his wake up party.

Rogue and Gambit, now married, were there with their two children, a boy and a girl of different ages from before, but still named Olivier and Rebecca. One of Olivier's brown eyes had a blue glow. Rogue actually looked her age now, giving the Professor the impression that she hadn't absorbed one of the X-23s this time.

His impression was confirmed when Logan (looking ageless as usual), introduced him to the four young women he'd rescued from a Weapon X storage facility some years ago. He was well pleased to meet Laura and her three sisters again.

Kitty and Piotr were also married, with children. Forge was still single. Bobby and Hank brought dates.

Storm had become more elemental than human.

"My mutation has gone up a few levels since last we spoke, Professor," Storm told him, her voice sounding more like the wind than the human tones he remembered. "I'm becoming one with the elements."

Warren was there with wings of white feathers. He spent his time with a telepathic, purple-haired woman introduced to Professor Xavier as Psylocke.

Jean, Scott, and Emma were present, along with a handful of kids who answered to the last name "Summers".

Magneto was also there, with all three of his children. Pietro seemed to be alone and Professor Xavier chose not to inquire about Crystal. Lorna was engaged to Scott's younger brother Alex. What startled Professor Xavier the most, however, was finding out that Kurt and Wanda had married. They had a daughter, Talia, who had her father's striking appearance.

In between catching up with everyone, Professor Xavier would look around the room and smile. It warmed his heart to see everyone alive and well.

* * *

**Present Time:**

Rogue wandered into the kitchen about midday the following day and found Gambit at the stove, busy cooking.

"Hey," she said. "What are you doing here?"

Gambit turned his head and grinned at her. "Good morning to you too."

"It's afternoon."

"Minor detail. I'm making crepes for breakfast, want some?" he asked.

Rogue nodded. "Sure, thanks. I didn't know you cooked."

"You don't know a lot about me, chère," Gambit replied, turning back to the stove.

"You're right," Rogue said, sitting down at the table. "I still don't know why you're here."

"Stormy graciously invited me to stay for the night when we got back," Gambit replied, removing the freshly cooked crepe from the pan. "She made this offer while we were on the Blackbird but I understand you were busy listening to other voices at the time so..."

"Oh shush you," Rogue said, catching his teasing tone in time to stop from saying something really rude. "I had the psyches of all the X-Men in my head blathering away _and_ Jean's telepathy was picking up even more voices."

"You were shouting like a deaf person," Gambit teased her as he poured more crepe batter into the pan. "Well, a half-deaf person, anyway."

"I couldn't hear myself think, let alone speak, Swamp Rat," Rogue said. "Let it go."

Gambit chuckled. "So, did you have fun? I understand you were able to keep the four Horsemen occupied all by your lonesome."

"Yeah, actually," Rogue said. "It's not often I get to let loose like that, although, I hadn't actually intended on taking on all four of them. I guess that was probably Logan's influence there. He does seem to enjoy taking on multiple targets at once."

"Your voices influence you a lot?" Gambit asked.

Rogue shrugged. "A bit. Comes with the territory, I suppose. Sometimes it works out in my favour, like when I need a crash course in something. Other times it's a pain in the ass."

"I can imagine."

"No, really," Rogue corrected in all seriousness. "You can't."

Bobby entered the kitchen, yawning as he approached. He frowned slightly when he spotted Gambit at the stove.

"Gambit's cooking breakfast," Rogue said, grinning at the puzzled expression on his face.

"Did you want some?" Gambit asked. "I'm making crepes."

"Crepes?" Bobby repeated. "Like... crepes suzette?"

"Nah, it's a little early in the morning to be burning alcohol," Gambit replied cheerfully. "Crepes are very thin pancakes. I was going to have custard and apple crepes myself."

"Oh," Bobby frowned slightly, then added, "and it's the middle of the day."

"Yet, here we are, about to have breakfast," Gambit replied cheerfully.

Others started to turn up. Gambit cooked crepes for everyone who wanted them, having the forethought to make plenty of batter. Scott and Kitty, who had been given a clean bill of health that morning (a 24 hours virus as it turned out), also joined them for what would be their lunch.

"And what are your plans for today?" Storm inquired of Gambit when they were both seated at the table.

"Nothing much really," Gambit replied, promptly filling his mouth with food.

"Drinking, gambling, and women, most likely," Logan said from the kitchen where he was cooking his crepe-free breakfast.

Gambit gave a half shrug in response.

"And after today?" Storm asked, ignoring Logan. "Will you be having a break or finding another... job?"

Gambit swallowed.

"Why the twenty questions?" he asked.

"Merely curiosity on my part," Storm replied, looking down at her plate to gather up another bite of crepe on her fork. "I plan to spend the afternoon tending my plants. Thank you for your assistance last... earlier this morning."

Gambit shrugged nonchalantly. "You're paying me."

"Seriously?" Kitty asked from across the table. "Three billion people were going to die and that's all you have to say about it?"

"Speaking of which," Rogue said, glancing back at Logan. "Have we heard back from... ahem... about that yet?"

"Nope," Logan replied.

"What do you want me to say, petite?" Gambit asked Kitty. "Looting wouldn't have been much fun after half the world's population had died?"

"That's horrible!" Kitty said.

"I think the horrible part was three billion people dying from an epidemic," Gambit replied coolly, lifting his fork to his lips. "After that point everyone would have been looting, chaos would have erupted, the economy would've been screwed, and every megalomaniac looking to grab power would have taken advantage of said chaos to do just that."

Gambit didn't notice the X-Men's silence as he chewed his next mouthful.

"Apocalypse," he said thoughtfully after swallowing. "That sounds like a good name for a megalomaniac."

"Does, doesn't it?" Rogue said.

"Ahh good," Hank said, appearing in the doorway of the dining room. "You're all up. Jean's rested and is feeling up to putting Emma back together."

* * *

Jean didn't bother waiting for the X-Men to arrive before she started locating all the pieces of Emma's mind to start fitting them together. There was little point anyway as very little happened that anyone would even see.

The X-men started drifting in as each one finished breakfast, including Gambit, who came in with Rogue. Gambit found the sight of Emma's fractured diamond body rather fascinating. At the same time, part of him felt a little sick, knowing that he'd sold pieces of her body to whoever would give him the best deal. He never would have done something like that with a flesh-and-blood corpse. He hoped this would work out.

The process seemed to be quite lengthy, long enough that some started wondering if it was even working. Then there was a gasp, and a moment later, colour filled the diamond body.

"Omigod, you did it!" Kitty exclaimed.

Jean held up her hand towards Kitty in a silencing gesture. All eyes were on Emma.

Slowly, very slowly, Emma moved. She pushed herself up and swung her legs over the side. Hank hurried over before she could get off the bed completely, but he needn't have worried. Emma lifted her head and looked at everyone, but longest at Jean.

"Emma," Scott pushed away from the group and took Emma's hands. "You're alive."

Emma looked at him for a long moment, then back at Jean.

"That was... different," Emma said finally.

Jean smiled, feeling psychically the gratitude that Emma would not bring herself to say aloud.

"You're welcome," Jean said.

Emma took her hands from Scott and sniffed.

"Is there a reason why I smell like sewerage?" she asked, fanned her nose all so briefly, and narrowed her eyes. "And why does this hand smell like crotch?"

* * *

Later that day, after Gambit departed, the X-Men gathered around Professor Xavier's comatose body.

"Alright, Chuck," Logan said. "We're all here."

At those words, a large version of Professor Xavier's head appeared above his body.

"I have good news," the Professor told them telepathically, "and some... bad news, if you will. The good news is that the Age of Apocalypse has been averted."

"But it's been replaced by something else bad, right?" Scott asked, sounding half-irritated, half-excited.

"I don't know all that much about the current future," Professor Xavier replied tolerantly, "but I have come to a decision: unless something goes terribly wrong, I will not be contacting you again."

"What? Why?" Bobby asked.

"Because humankind cannot learn from their mistakes if they are prevented from making any," the Professor said. "Besides, it is time for me to start living in the present, and not in the past. Please know that I am very proud of all of you."

He wanted to say more than that, perhaps give each a message of encouragement, but these recent times had shown him just how easy it was to change the future with only a few words.

"Until we meet again, in twenty years from now," he said, a little reluctantly, and then he withdrew from their minds.

"That's it?" said Kitty, looking around disgustedly at everyone. "We stop the virus, and it's 'you did good, I'm going now'? Jerk."

"I think the Professor has become aware of just how easy it is for him to change his time by interacting with us now," Jean said patiently, having caught a little of his frame of mind. "It's difficult, I know, but try not to be too hard on him."

Kitty sighed. "It just feels a little anti-climatic after everything we went through."

"Yeah, I know."

* * *

Later still, Rogue was in the middle of reading one of her books in her bedroom when there was a knock at her window. She frowned and turned her head to see Gambit waving at her. Rogue stuffed her bookmark in place, shoved the paperback under her pillow, and got off the bed to open up the window to let him in.

"What the hell are you doing here, Swamp Rat?" she demanded, glaring at him.

"I just wanted to see you," Gambit replied. He glanced around the room and grinned when he noticed her flowers sitting in a vase across the room. "Who got you those? One of your boy toys?"

"Boy toys?" Rogue repeated, then glared harshly at him. "Get out."

"You know," Gambit said wickedly, leaning against the wall. "One of those guys you ask to think dirty thoughts right before you kiss them. You man eater you."

Up until that moment, Rogue had completely forgotten about Matt.

"No," Rogue said tersely, folding her arms across her chest. "I don't know who they're from. Not that it's any of your business."

Gambit grinned at her, pushed off the wall and slid his hands around her waist. He liked the way her face coloured even as she glared defiantly at him.

"I just wanted to know if I should be jealous," he said, moving into her way more than Rogue was happy with. "I got them for you."

"What the hell is your problem?" she demanded. "First you can't stay far enough away from me, and now you're getting too close."

"Just making up for lost time, ma chère," Gambit replied. "Before it was just business. I was being prudent. Now, however, business is over. Well, it'll be over when I get the last payment, and so prudence can go to hell. Have I ever told you just how beautiful you are?"

Rogue pushed him off her. "Get out."

"What's wrong, Roguey?" he asked flirtatiously. "You can dish it out but you can't take it?"

"Screw you," Rogue said, stalking over to the flowers. "I should've known these came from someone just wanting to mess with my head."

She started to throw them to the ground, feeling bitter about getting her hopes up about having a secret admirer. Gambit caught the flowers before they could touch the floor.

"Careful chère," he said. "I actually paid for these."

"Ooooh," Rogue replied sarcastically. "Am I supposed to be impressed?"

"Well," Gambit replied with a half shrug as he put the flowers back. "I _am_ a thief."

Rogue pointed at the window. "Leave."

"Okay," he said, backing towards the window.

"I meant it, leave right..." Rogue paused, blinked and then frowned at him. "Wait, you're actually going?"

Gambit grinned broadly at her.

"Don't worry, chère," he said. "I promise I'll be back and the flowers won't be the last thing you get from me."

"Great," Rogue muttered. "You know, usually guys back off when they find out I'm untouchable."

"Oh good, I get you all to myself then," Gambit said, deliberately raking his eyes over her.

"You don't get me at all," Rogue snapped at him.

"Of course I will," Gambit said, opening up the window for his departure. "We both know you want to be chased, Roguey."

"Do we?" Rogue said, trying to keep a damper down on her brewing excitement. "And even if I did, that doesn't mean you can catch me."

"If I am not a hunter worthy of catching you, then I don't deserve to," Gambit replied. "Fortunately for both of us, I know I have the skills and fortitude to keep up with you."

"You've got nothing, Swamp Rat," Rogue retorted.

Gambit chuckled as he climbed back out the window. He gave her a wink and a flirtatious glance.

"Oh yes," he said. "What a grand pursuit it shall be."

Rogue slammed the window shut behind him. The talented thief quickly escaped her watchful eye as he slipped into the darkness and Rogue allowed a smile to cross her lips.

* * *

Mister Sinister watched the security footage once again as Jamie Madrox's duplicates packed up the base. It irked Sinister that he needed to move again, but he didn't want any more surprise visits from the X-Men right now.

He paused the frame and zoomed in on Gambit's face. He was somewhat disappointed that Gambit had teamed up with the X-Men.

"Sir, we're ready to shut down the computers," said one of the duplicates.

"Very well," Sinister replied.

The duplicate paused and then left the room, leaving Sinister alone. Sinister looked at Gambit's face for a long moment before lifting his hand to shut everything off.

"Until next time," he said quietly, "my son."

* * *

**End!**

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Your words have been much appreciated. And to everyone who read and didn't review, I hope you enjoyed the story.

As for a sequel (because I know people are going to ask): No promises. There's lots of possibilities here, but I'm not going to write one unless I come up with a good story for it, otherwise I'd just be writing one for the sake of it and that would be a chore, heh.

My next story (unless I come up with a one-shot in the meantime) is going to be Gym Class Heroes. It's going to be awhile before I start posting because it's turning out to be much longer than I thought it would be (current estimate is 40 chapters, this is subject to change). For updates on my progress, you can check out my Facebook page - the link is on my profile.

Thanks again!


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